OLD 
NEW ENGLAND TRAITS 

EDITED BY 

/ 
GEORGE LUNT 



. . . this story's actually true. 
If any person doubt it, I appeal 
To history, tradition, and to facts, 
To newspapers, whose truth all know and feel. 

Byron 




;«?■ COP V,i:&Hf% 



■m 



NEW YORK J 
PUBLISHED BY KURD AND HOUGHTON 

1873 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the j'ear 1873, by 

George Lunt, 
in the OfEce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY 

H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Editor of this little volume does not 
deem it incumbent upon him to explain 
in what way the author's manuscript came 
into his possession. He hopes it may be 
enough for him to say, that the writer be- 
lieved himself to be the only person whose 
memory retained most of the incidents and 
anecdotes herein recorded ; and a long 
and familiar acquaintance with his charac- 
ter enables the Editor to state, that entire 
credence is due to his narrative of facts, 
written down as occurring within his own 
knowledge and to his relation of what- 
ever he alleges himself to have derived 
from others. A slight veil of mystery 
seems to have been originally thrown over 
the story ; especially in regard to the 
names of persons ; but, as all who are 



iv Introdicction. 

familiar with the locality will at once rec- 
ognize its general features, the Editor has 
thought it best, for the benefit of others 
not so well informed, to make all proper 
explanations on this point in the Index. 

Sometimes, New England has been 
spoken of as devoid of the elements of 
romance ; but perhaps this idea may be 
owing to the fact, that the means of pre- 
senting a different asjDect of the case have 
not been sufficiently investigated. A sim- 
ilar impression has prevailed in respect to 
Roman history and literature, whether fab- 
ulous or otherwise ; and the fathers of New 
England, at least, have been thought to 
have exhibited some of the traits, especially 
the simplicity and severity of character, 
which distinguished those more ancient 
worthies, whose names and deeds have been 
so long famous. But without making other 
citations, I may remark, that I am scarcely 
acquainted with a poem more thoroughly 
romantic in conception and sentiment, than 



Introduction, v 

" Galliis," the tenth eclogue of Virgil ; and 
Macaulay, in his " Lays of Ancient Rome," 
has turned some of its legends to fine poet- 
ical account. Where can be found, for in- 
stance, a prettier, or more suggestive pic- 
ture, than the passage in his "Virginia," 
which some inspired painter might make 
immortal upon canvas, as it is in verse : — 

" With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on 
her arm, 
Home she went bounding from the school, nor dreamed 
of shame or harm." 

Perhaps, the solemnities of the colonial 
history of New England may have over- 
shadowed much of whatever, poetical inter- 
est might be discovered in its private an- 
nals. It depends upon the reader, whether 
the present narrative may be thought in 
some measure to qualify the imputation in 
question. G. L. 



OLD NEW ENGLAND TRAITS. 



CHAPTER I. 

It was the winter of 1 8 — , between fifty 
and sixty years ago. Certainly the winters 
of New England began earlier and were 
more severe than they have seemed at a 
later period. After the fervid heat of sum- 
mer has become subdued by the progres- 
sive changes of the season, no atmosphere 
could be clearer, purer, more exhilarating 
than the prevailing tone of our October 
days, and this kindly influence, as if by 
way of preparing the human frame for the 
gradual approach of winter, generally ex- 
tends, with occasional stormy intermissions, 
through November, and often very far into 
the frosty domain of December itself And 
such snow-storms as we once endured ! It 



2 Old New England Traits, 

may be alleged, that distance of time for- 
bids accuracy of comparison, and that 
masses of snow, which appeared vast to a 
child, would not seem so immense to a full- 
grown man, and were really no more huge 
than some of those with which winter now- 
adays envelopes the ground. But facts 
within my memory do not admit of such 
an explanation, for I distinctly recollect the 
driving storm which continued for days and 
piled its accumulating heaps against the 
front of our dwelling-place, so as entirely 
to cover the windows of the lower story of 
the house, and to rise above the main door 
which was of ordinary height, and that at 
length we were released from this impris- 
onment by means of an archway to that en- 
trance, dug through the drift by the friendly 
efforts of an opposite neighbor.^ 

1 As I set down these reminiscences I obsen^e the fol- 
lowing paragraph in a Boston daily paper of November 
27, 1872 : — 

" November Snow. Fifty-two years ago to-day there 
were twenty-eight inches of snow on a level in the vicin- 
ity of Portsmouth, N. H." 



A Snow-drift and Rescue, 3 

Our deliverer was a superannuated sea- 
man ; inspired partly, no doubt, by the good- 
heartedness formerly, at least, thought to 
be characteristic of that class of men, and, 
partly, by respect for the memory of my 
father, who had been dead for some years, 
in the early prime of life, leaving behind 
him the best of reputations as a shipmas- 
ter and a man. Perhaps Tom Trudge had, 
at some time, sailed under him. I well re- 
member the triumphant air with which this 
ancient mariner introduced himself into the 
kitchen, where all the family was assembled, 
doffing his tarpauUn, flourishing his shovel, 
and cutting one or two capers, in token of 
his hilarity at the accomplishment of his 
somewhat arduous job. Of course, there 
were profuse thanks and congratulations 
on the occasion ; but I recollect only, that, 
after the second glass of grog furnished by 
my mother, — a refreshment to which Tom 
was only too partial, — he executed another 
spring from the floor, snapped his fingers 



4 Old New England Traits, 

and cried, " Tired, ma'am ! — not a bit of 
it ! For all I've done to-day, by the blessed 
binnacle I should think nothing at all of 
jumping over a meetin-us, — yes, a meetin- 
us, ma'am ! " to the amazement, at the idea 
of such a feat, of certainly all the younger 
fry who were present at the ceremony. 

The town in which we lived was one of 
the very oldest of the New England settle- 
ments. Its situation is uncommonly beau- 
tiful, upon a slope descending from a mod« 
erately elevated ridge towards the bank of 
a noble river, which of late years has fur- 
nished more motive power to various man- 
ufacturing establishments in the towns and 
villages, which have sprung up on its bor- 
ders, than any other stream in the world. 
At the time of which I write, there was not 
a mill throughout its whole extent. It is 
told, that Louis Philippe, when a fugitive 
in this country, in his youth, passing up the 
road which leads mostly along the margin 
of the river to a point where the first falls 



A Remarkable Town, 5 

interrupt the navigation, pronounced the 
scenery the most beautiful he had ever 
seen. The river was then chiefly famous 
for the rafts of admirable timber which it 
sent down from the primeval forests above, 
for the construction of the unsurpassed 
ships built near the town, and for the com- 
merce flourishing upon its bosom and ex- 
tending to every quarter of the globe. It 
was idle enough, in comparison, at a later 
period. 

Early in the present century, and for a 
long series of years in the past, no town on 
the American coast surpassed it in com- 
mercial enterprise and activity. The habits 
and traditions of the place were well calcu- 
lated to nurse a hardy race of seamen, and 
their reputation for skill and courage was 
well known throughout the maritime world. 
Persons are very apt to look at some direct 
circumstance, nearest at hand, for the cause 
of events, which may after all result from 
much more remote contingencies. So, at 



6 Old New England Traits, 

first, in the days of the declining trade of 
the town, they said the obstruction to its 
commerce was owing to the sand-bar at 
the mouth of the river. But the bar had 
been there from time immemorial ; and 
though it is true that modern-built vessels, 
with their cargoes, could not pass that bar- 
rier, as ships of lesser tonnage were for- 
merly accustomed to do, yet the main 
cause for this decay of business was to be 
found in the growth of the capital of the 
State, and the greater facilities for the 
transaction of business which exist in 
larger than in smaller places. 

But the bar itself was always of very dan- 
gerous passage in boisterous weather, and 
often the daring pilots of the station, than 
whom none upon the coast were more com- 
petent and courageous, were exposed to ex- 
treme peril, in their small craft, in return- 
ing to the river, when they had been on the 
look-out for inward-bound vessels in the 
bay. 



A Bold Pilot. 7 

It so happened that a schooner in which 
I was a passenger, when a youngster, was 
detained outside the bar, and was Ukely to 
be detained for several hours, waiting for 
the tide to make. A young pilot, accom- 
panied by his still younger brother, came 
alongside in their whale-boat, and having 
some acquaintance with me invited me to 
sail with them to town ; and, having been 
some time absent from home, I gladly ac- 
cepted their offer. Their boat was under a 
single low sail. The breeze was fresh and 
the day fair, though I could not but be 
aware, as we bowled along towards the bar, 
that a retreating storm had left some indi- 
cations of its past presence in the tossing 
foam that sprang upwards as the waves 
dashed upon that treacherous heap of shift- 
ing sand. The pilot sat in the stern-sheets 
of the dancing boat, steering steadily with 
an oar. His brother tended the sail, and 
I was crouched amidships. As we ap- 
proached nearer the scene of commotion, 



8 Old New England Traits, 

our younger companion assumed a station 
in the bow of the boat and began to sound 
with an oar. This looked a little formidable 
to a landsman ; and soon turning his head 
in the interval of hastily pushing his imple- 
ment into the water, the bowsman called 
out to his brother, " Joe, are you going to 
try it ? " Joe made no sign, but steered 
steadily on. Again and again the sound- 
ing oar went rapidly down, and I suppose 
at last to the bottom, and again the young 
man cried out with renewed energy, " Joe, 
are you going to try it ? " Joe uttered no 
word, but chewing his quid, looked stead- 
fastly forward. In a moment a heavy wave 
struck the boat, drenching us plentifully, 
but not filling her, and bounding up, stag- 
gering a little, she dashed on, and with 
another like slap or two, we were over and 
i(n fairly smooth water. Had the boat 
struck bottom, she would have been in- 
stantly dashed to pieces and we should 
have met the sad fate of others who, before 



Thackeray s Expectations. 9 

and since, have been drowned and lost to 
sight forever in that seething tide. 

In a conversation with a very eminent 
EngHsh novelist, of profounder skill and 
more permanent fame, in my opinion, than 
any other since Scott, he expressed his sur- 
prise at the solid aspect of the city of Bos- 
ton, in which we had met, on the day after 
his arrival in this country, upon his first lec- 
turing tour. He had enjoyed the best op- 
portunities of viewing " men and cities," 
not only in Europe, but in various parts of 
the farther East. I took the liberty of re- 
plying that Boston had been growing nearly 
two centuries and a half, and inquired if 
he expected to see wigwams, or even those 
slighter fabrics which betoken the earlier 
stages of advancing colonization. He said, 
" No, of course not ; but it had quite as 
substantial an appearance as an English 
city." But it is to be remembered that the 
persons who came to this country, at first, 
and from time to time, afterwards, were al- 



lo Old New England Traits, 

ready civilized, and brought with them and 
transmitted to their descendants much of 
the knowledge and many of the habits, 
peculiarities, and even the traditions of 
their ancestors " at home." Our town, too, 
looked old, though far from being so sub- 
stantially built as Boston. 

In fact, while reading the fragment of 
Scott's autobiography of his earlier days, 
and Dean Ramsay's " Reminiscences," one 
might almost think that their descriptions 
of character and manners, in so ancient a 
city as Edinburgh, were in many respects 
but a recapitulation of popular ways and 
.even of personal oddities in our own re- 
spectable American town. Especially, the 
great novelist's vivid narrative of the des- 
perate street conflicts between the lads of 
the several quarters of the "auld town," 
revives many boyish recollections. In my 
youth, the division was into Northenders 
and Southenders ; but as our own resi- 
dence was in the central part of the town. 



Boyish Conflicts, ii 

we stood, as it were, between two fires. 
The conflicts usually took place in the win- 
ter, when the snow was on the ground, and 
though heartily engaged in, and sometimes 
quite too rough for play, were generally 
good-natured enough to avoid any very 
serious danger to life or limb. In the 
higher schools, the lads were drawn from 
every quarter of the town ; but upon dis- 
missal for the day, or upon the afternoons 
of Wednesday and Saturday, when no 
school was kept, the partisans of the sev- 
eral sections offered combat which was sel- 
dom refused. The usual weapons were 
snow-balls, which were sometimes, I regret 
to say, dipped in water and frozen over 
night, and kept in some secure place to await 
the expected battle, and occasionally a peb- 
ble, the missile commonly used by the Scot- 
tish combatants, was inserted, — a practice 
which was almost universally condemned. 
Very seldom did we come to a hand-fight, 
for a spirited " rush," when either party felt 



12 Old New England Traits, 

strong enough for it, was almost always 
followed by a rapid retreat on the other 
side. But woe to the luckless stripling 
whose headlong courage carried him far in 
advance of his companions ; for upon a 
sudden turn of affairs he was a captive, 
and down in an instant, and mercilessly 
" scrubbed " with snow by a dozen ready 
hands, until the rallying host of his com- 
patriots advanced vigorously to the rescue. 
The normal alliance of us middle-men was 
with the Southenders, though a good deal 
rougher than ourselves ; and in times of 
truce a solitary boy would walk a little gin- 
gerly through their quarter, as errands or 
family occasions led him that way. But 
the principal commercial interests centered 
in those parts of the town, and if, upon the 
breaking out of determined warfare, we 
could secure, in the capacity of leader, the 
services of some lubberly boy who had 
made a voyage, even a mere coasting trip, 
to sea, though I remember that these were 



Boyish Amusements. 13 

sometimes far less adventurous in the field 
than those who had no experience of the 
perilous deep, the issue of the contest was 
not for a moment doubtful. The forces of 
our adversaries melted away, like the snow 
with which they fought, at the very pres- 
ence of a champion supposed to be of such 
redoubted prowess. The dependence of 
those adverse combatants was rather upon 
some of the younger hangers-on at the 
ship-yards, in their territory, for such a cas- 
ual auxiliary. Sometimes, the elements of 
military skill would be displayed. While 
the two forces were closely engaged, a 
flanking party would make a sudden rush 
up some short by-street, and then the com- 
plete demoralization and panic-flight of the 
warriors thus newly assailed was something 
truly disastrous to behold. 

Of course, we enjoyed the ordinary boy- 
ish sports of boating, swimming, and skat- 
ing in the season for it ; or, of a pleasant 
afternoon, would roam away " over the 



14 Old New England Traits, 

hills," as the phrase ran, huckleberrying, 
perhaps, or gathering penny-royal and other 
wild herbs for the old folks at home ; to 
be dried and reserved for future occasions. 
For, in those days, a garret would hardly 
be considered complete, without bunches 
of these simples hanging from the beams 
by strings, or stored away in paper-bags. 
In the fall of the year, we had another re- 
source, long since interdicted by the owners 
of farms in the neighborhood of populous 
towns. This was the pleasure of nutting ; 
for the urchins of those days regarded 
these kinds of fruit, growing on trees in 
the fields, as a sort of ferce natura and free 
to every passer-by ; though the more surly 
proprietors, even then, took much pains to 
circumvent and capture the lads, as they 
returned with their poles for beating the 
branches and with their loaded bags, borne 
by two or three of them, hanging by the 
middle across those implements. Some- 
times, predatory bands proceeded in force 



The DeviVs Den, 15 

and defied the farmer on his own ground. 
The story was told of one luckless individ- 
ual who went nutting alone and was caught 
and imprisoned, for a time, in the cellar of 
the farm-house, but mischievously contrived 
to set all the taps of the cider-barrels run- 
ning, before he was released. These excur- 
sions led us often to the Devil's Den, an 
excavation in an abandoned ledge of lime- 
stone, in a solitary situation at some dis- 
tance from the town, and guarded, now as 
then, by three rather spectral-looking Lom- 
bardy poplars, which to us boys had a sort 
of mystic and undefined significance. Here 
we procured bits of serpentine, interspersed 
with veins of rag-stone, as we denominated 
asbestos, which, strangely enough, we used 
to chew. I suppose that no boy ever went 
to that place alone, and a sort of solemn 
ceremony attended his first visit with his 
older playmates, to a scene bearing an ap- 
pellation ominous enough to call up every 
vague dread of his youthful heart. The 



i6 Old New England Traits, 

approach on these occasions was rather 
circuitous, through the pastures, until an 
elevated mass of stone, standing quite soli- 
tary, was reached, designated as " Pulpit 
Rock." To the summit of this, the neo- 
phyte was required to climb, and there to 
repeat some accustomed formula, I fear not 
very reverent, by way of initiation, and sup- 
posed to be of power to avert any malign 
influences to which the unprepared in- 
truder upon the premises of the nominal 
lord of the domain might otherwise be sub- 
jected. For these youngsters the ordinary 
means of education were abundantly sup- 
plied, and the girls, too, had their Academy 
for those who aspired to something beyond 
the common range ; and when, at a later 
period, I became conversant with their cir- 
cle, I must say that I have never known 
young ladies of better manners or more 
cultivated minds. As an evidence of more 
expansive benevolence than usual, and of 
profounder interest in the affairs of the great 



Handsome Houses, 17 

world abroad, I remember that when the 
class of students in Goldsmith's Ancient 
History came to recitation, one young lady 
burst into a torrent of tears. The aston- 
ished teacher anxiously inquired into the 
cause of her emotion. In the midst of 
her sobs she ejaculated, " Oh, that good 
man, Socrates ! To think they should have 
treated him so ! " She was finally soothed ; 
but considering that the incident in ques- 
tion was of a rather remote date, this ebul- 
lition of feehng evinced a generous sym- 
pathy with a victim of past injustice, truly 
worthy of a philanthropic mind. 

It is still a town of stately mansions upon 
its principal street, and one more beautiful 
can scarcely be imagined. The magnifi- 
cent elms, of the graceful American kind, 
which line its borders, have always been 
reckoned a feature of extraordinary beauty. 
Of late years, special means for supplying 
and preserving this elegant and useful kind 
of embellishment of the streets have been 



1 8 Old New England Traits, 

provided by the liberal bequest, for this 
purpose, of Mr. John Bromfield, a native of 
the town, but long a respected merchant at 
the capital of the State. A conspicuous 
house standing upon a gentle elevation, at 
some distance from the street, with pleas- 
ant grounds in its front and rear, was 
appropriately named by its original pro- 
prietor "Mount Rural," though not, per- 
haps, with the most exact observance of the 
requirements of grammatical construction. 
Still, it has some authority for being con- 
sidered idiomatic, for does not " Pilsfrim's 
Progress " tell us of the " Palace Beautiful ? " 
And doubtless many other instances might 
be cited of the substitution of an adjec- 
tive for a noun. At all events, the worthy 
owner, who built his house in the most 
approved style of former New England ar- 
chitecture, spacious, square, and with pro- 
jecting windows in the roof, made some 
pretensions to classical allusion ; for culti- 
vating extensive gardens in the rear of his 



An Ancient Farm-house, 19 

dwelling, he placed for an inscription on his 
front wall, — 

" Miraturque novas frondes, et non sua poma," — 

a citation which, it is to be feared, would 
be taken rather as encouragement to mis- 
chievous urchins, if any of them understood 
it, rather than as a warning to abstain from 
the fruit. 

Near the extremity of the opposite quar- 
ter of the town still stands an ancient edi- 
fice of solid stone, with a couple of stories 
of porch of the same material, approached 
by a lane, bordered with trees, leading 
some distance from the highway, and con- 
stituting, with some modern additions, the 
dwelling-place of a considerable farm. It 
boasts an age of more than two centuries, as 
appears by the figures above its entrance, 
and was apparently built for defence, when 
precautions against Indian incursions were 
thought necessary, though afterwards used 
as a powder-house ; and tradition has it 
that, on one occasion, an explosion took 



20 Old New England Traits, 

place by night, which blew away a part of 
the side wall, lifted the bed on which a ne- 
gro woman, the slave of the occupant, was 
asleep, bore her safely across the road, and 
planted her, bed and all, upon the spread- 
ing branches of an apple-tree, without in- 
jury. An early owner of the place was the 
ancestor of one of the recent Presidents of 
the United States, and it was known, until 
quite a modern period, as the Pierce Farm. 
Not many years ago, there still remained 
at the corner of a street, between the points 
just designated, one of those ancient houses 
not common in this country, the second story 
resting on heavy beams, which showed them- 
selves in the outside walls, and the walls of 
the long, low dwelling filled in with a coat of 
dark plaster braced by wooden cross-pieces, 
like those of Shakespeare's birthplace at 
Stratford. The handsome houses before al- 
luded to were the residences chiefly of mer- 
chants, or sea-captains, who had retired from 
their maritime or commercial occupations 



Wkai Riches memit, 21 

with a competence, or of prosperous profes- 
sional persons.^ But a competence in those 
frugal days was an insignificant sum in com- 
parison with the fortunes of our own time, 
scarcely approaching the annual income of 
the shoddy-masters, who now regulate the 
avenues of social and so-called aristocratic 
life. Indeed, I was once informed by an 
old inhabitant, that the richest person in 
the town, near the close of the last century, 
was assessed upon only ten thousand dol- 
lars' worth of personal property. But I 

1 The late Mr. George Wood, of Washington, a native 
of our town, in some highly interesting Memorabiliaj 
formerly published, says : " The aristocracy were not 
on High Street, as now, but on Water Street, and more 
at the South than the North end, as the old houses give 
evidence to this day. The Johnsons, Jacksons, Daven- 
ports, Coffins, Greenleafs, Bartletts, Pierces, Hoopers, 
Tappans, Todds, Carters, Lunts, Marquands, and others 
of wealth, were on Water Street or near it. There 
were their grand houses and fine gardens, and it was 
not till they thought of retiring from business that they 
removed to the West-end or up-town, as gradually as 
they always do in all places." 



22 Old New Engla7id. Traits, 

think there must be some mistake in this 
statement, unless the rate of taxation was 
exceedingly low ; for this same prosperous 
merchant devoted twenty times as much 
as that reputed capital to certain pious 
uses, during his protracted life-time, and 
still left forty times as much at his decease. 
Doubtless in those better days, the inevita- 
ble "rates" ("death and rates," they used 
to say, " were certain ") were so small as to 
press but lightly upon the incomes of indi- 
viduals in moderate circumstances, and the 
means of getting at the exact measure of a 
man's worldly " worth," had not reached 
their present degree of perfection. Indeed 
I may state, upon unquestionable authority, 
that, late in the first quarter of the present 
century, a highly respected trader of the 
town, who lived genteelly and was taxed 
upon a supposed capital of eighteen thou- 
sand dollars, waited upon the assessors and 
blandly told them, " Gentlemen, I have 
been more than usually prosperous the last 



A Cunning Expedient, 23 

year, and am willing you should tax me 
upon an additional thousand." Such com- 
bined integrity and disinterestedness was 
the theme of universal commendation ; but 
when the old gentleman went to another 
reckoning a few years afterwards, his heirs 
had the benefit of an estate nearer one hun- 
dred thousand dollars in value, than the 
limited capital which had contributed its 
quota to the public burdens. In a word, 
I have heard my Aunt Judith say, that in 
her youth it was usual for respectable young 
women to take service with more thriving 
neighbors or friends, for the annual allow- 
ance of their board and a single caUcd gown, 
at four and sixpence a yard, — as the price 
was before mills were estabUshed on our 
own ground. 

I cannot help referring more particularly 
to some of the families of the town, who 
imparted to it a well-founded reputation, 
not surpassed, if equaled, by that of any 
town or city in the land ; for instance, there 



24 Old New England Traits, 

were the Lowells, who gave name, after- 
wards, to that wonderful city of spindles, 
which enjoys as world-wide a standing in 
the annals of manufacturing enterprise as 
the old-world Manchester of a long-ante- 
rior date, and one of whom, amid the des- 
olate ruins of Luxor, struck by the hand of 
fatal disease, conceived the idea of estab- 
lishing that noble Institute which bears his 
name, and will convey it to future grateful 
generations ; a name, too, which has so re- 
sounded in the popular literature of the day. 
Then, there were the Jacksons, famous in 
mechanics and in two of the learned pro- 
fessions ; Charles Jackson, the erudite and 
upright judge, and James Jackson, one of 
those skillful and truly benevolent physi- 
cians, whose memory is still in the hearts 
of many surviving patients. The Tyngs, 
too, resided there, long honorably connected 
with colonial history and still represented by 
descendants of national repute. Amongst 
other remarkable individuals was Jacob 



Ancient Schoolmasters, 25 

Perkins, the famous inventor, who at an ad- 
vanced age ended his useful career with no 
Httle foreign celebrity in the great city of 
the world. I have read lately of his success- 
ful exhibition of his wonderful steam-gun, 
in the presence of the Duke of Wellington 
and other competent judges of the experi- 
ment, and know not what national prejudice, 
perhaps, or other casual reason, prevented 
its adoption.^ In science, too, we had Mas- 
ter Nicholas Pike, an ancient magistrate, 
whose arithmetic held its ground through- 
out the country, until it was superseded by 
that of Master Michael Walsh, which re- 
ceived the high commendation of so capital 
a judge, in matters of calculation, as the 
old land-surveyor and finally head of the 

1 After resigning his office of judge, which he had held 
for only a few years, but administered with extraordinary 
ability ,and integrity, Judge Jackson went abroad for re- 
laxation, and a letter from a gentleman in London to 
a friend on this side the water says, — " Two of your 
townsmen, Judge Jackson and Jacob Perkins, now fill the 
public eye of England, and are the subjects of public and 
private conversation." 



26 Old New England Traits. 

nation, Washington. Master Walsh was an 
Irishman by birth, though " caught young," 
as Dr. Johnson remarked, to account for 
any distinction acquired by natives of Scot- 
land ; and he displayed much of that im- 
pulsive temperament imputed to the people 
of Erin's Green Isle. He dressed in the 
old style, his gray hair gathered into a 
queue, and wearing top-boots to the last. 
He was an excellent classical scholar, as 
well as mathematician. The pupils he pre- 
pared for college did justice to his instruc- 
tions, and some have acquired great emi- 
nence in the several professions and in the 
conduct of important national affairs. As 
an instance of his patriotic attachment to 
his adopted country, upon casually meet- 
ing, late in life, a certain writer of the town, 
after a cordial salutation, he added with a 
slight dash of the brogue, " I thank ye for 
the Red and the Blue ! " The young person 
was a little taken aback, not remembering 
the allusion, for a moment, when the old 



The Red and the Blue, 27 

gentleman repeated emphatically, — " The 
Red and the Blue, ye know — Tom Camp- 
bell." It was in reference to a couple of 
stanzas, addressed to the United States by 
that great lyric poet, scarcely equaled in his 
day, namely : — 

" United States ! your banner wears 
Two emblems : one of fame ; 
Alas ! the other that it bears 
Reminds us of your shame ! 

" The white man's liberty in types 
Stands blazoned by your stars : 
But what's the meaning of your stripes ? 
They mean your negroes' scars." 

To this the American had retorted : — 

"to the ENGLISH FLAG. 

" England ! whence came each glowing hue, 
That tints yon flag of * meteor ' light,i — 
The streaming red, the deeper blue, 

Crossed with the moonbeam's pearly white ? 

1 " The meteor flag of England," etc. Campbell. 
" Ye mariners of England." 



28 Old New England Traits, 

" The blood and bruise, — the bhie and red, — 
Let Asia's groaning millions speak ! 
The white, — it tells the color fled 
From starving Erin's pallid cheek ! " 

The verses were at first circulated as 
above set down. Campbell afterwards al- 
tered the two first lines of the second 
stanza into : — 

" Your standard's constellation types 
"White freedom by its stars," etc., — 

.impairing it, as some will think, both in 
force and in whatever poetical expression 
it may have originally had. Poets are apt 
to make similar mistakes, frittering away 
the first glow of thought and language, in 
revision. Has not Tennyson thus injured 
" The ride of the six hundred } " and did 
not Campbell himself half spoil " Hohen- 
linden," by taming its phraseology down 
into a supposed superfluous accuracy ? For 
example, he first wrote, — 

" 'Tis morn, but scarce yon lurid sun 
Can pierce the war-clouds, rolling dun," etc. 



Saturday and Sunday Evenings. 29 

It occurred to him, or some "stop-watch 
critic" suggested, that the sun itself was 
not actually " lurid," on that celebrated oc- 
casion, and he accordingly changed the ex- 
pression to " level," thus signifying a mere 
natural phenomenon ; and, besides the sac- 
rifice of a fine poetical expression, forget- 
ting that the sun must have appeared actu- 
ally "lurid" through the interposition of 
" the war-clouds, rolling dun;" Nor is this 
the only instance of misapplied fastidious- 
ness in that splendid and stirring piece. 

Then, there was the Rev. Dr. Spring, 
father of that celebrated clergyman, Dr. 
Gardiner Spring, of New York. He had 
been a chaplain in the army of the Revolu- 
tion ; and when I, as a boy, pulled off my 
cap to him in the street, I fancied there 
was something a little military in his polite 
salute in return. The good Doctor held to 
what were called Hopkinsian tenets, a spe- 
cial form of strict orthodoxy ; and it was al- 
leged that, differing from the ordinary prac- 



30 Old New England Traits, 

tice of religious people in the town, and 
construing literally the record of the Crea- 
tion, " The evening and the morning were 
the first day," — the Saturday evening was 
observed with primitive strictness in the 
family, while on Sunday evening, after sun- 
set, the excellent matron assumed her knit- 
ting-work, or attended to whatever secular 
occupation she chose. I have often thought, 
and it seems likely, that the name of Swett 

— that of one of the most eminent and ex- 
cellent physicians of his day, in our com- 
munity, and who in fact fell a sacrifice to the 
faithful discharge of his professional duty 

— was the same as Schwedt, borne by the 
Prince de Schwedt, well known at the court 
of Frederick of Prussia (so called) the Great. 
The good Doctor examined the throat of a 
yellow fever patient, in a vessel lying at 
quarantine ground in the river, and inhaling 
his infectious breath, went home declaring 
he had taken the disease, of which he 
shortly died. The efforts and liberality of 



Literary Persons. 31 

his son, the late Colonel Samuel Swett, in 
promoting the establishment of the Public 
Library of the town, though himself long a 
resident in the capital of the State, will for- 
ever endear his memory to the inhabitants. 
The daughter of another distinguished phy- 
sician, Dr. Sawyer, was Mrs. George Lee, 
who gained no little reputation by her 
" Lives of the Ancient Painters," and espe- 
cially by a book which attained great popu- 
larity under the title of " Three Experiments 
of Living." I should do great injustice to a 
list of noted personages — to some of whom 
allusion is made elsewhere in these pages, 
and which might be extended, if consistent 
with the objects of this work, were I to omit - 
mention of a lady. Miss Hannah F. Gould, 
whose poetical productions gained her well- 
deserved applause and many friends, and 
some of whose highly pleasing verses still 
retain their hold upon public esteem. Re- 
flectively, too, we might claim some share in 
the distinction of the most popular Ameri- 



32 Old New England Traits, 

can poet of our own day ; for the direct an- 
cestors of Longfellow were natives of our 
immediate vicinage. I had no intention, 
certainly, of offering any tribute to the liv- 
ing in these memorials of the past ; but 
one name inevitably suggests itself, bet- 
ter known on 'Change, in London, than in 
the place of his birth. I speak of William 
Wheelwright, a lad, at the period to which 
these sketches refer, long resident abroad, 
though occasionally brought home by the 
obligations and affections of family ties, 
to whose enterprise, and arduous, untiring 
pursuit of his object are owing steam navi- 
gation and railway lines in the southern 
part of this Continent, and to whose praise 
the whole South American coast will re- j 
spond. 

There were others and many, of high 
personal character and local reputation, 
and not a few of strongly marked charac- 
teristics, whose names, perhaps, would 
scarcely sound familiar to modern ears ; 



Distinguished Men and Families, 33 

but I cannot pass over one wealthy mer- 
chant, distinguished for his strong common 
sense and decided individuality, as well as 
for a success in business scarcely equaled in 
this country, in his day, — the well-known 
William Bartlett, to whose judicious bounty 
the chief theological seminary of the State 
and its principal Academy for the instruc- 
tion of youth owe so much toward the as- 
surance of their permanent foundation. 

Nor should the memory of Oliver Put- 
nam fail of a record, who, long absent from 
his native town, provided by his will for 
a generous bequest, upon which a Free 
School of the highest character has been 
long established. Nor should due tribute 
be forgotten in honor of George Peabody, 
who, remembering those days of his youth 
which were passed in acquiring habits of 
business in the place, distinguished its Pub- 
lic Library by a munificent gift. 

There had been many other men of 
marked character and great local influ- 
3 



34 Old New England Traits. 

ence : Tracys, Daltons, Greenleafs, Daven- 
ports, Hoopers, Bradburys, Johnsons, Cof- 
fins, Bromfields, Crosses ; and many more, 
doubtless, might be thought worthy of men- 
tion. Among those named above, Nathaniel 
Tracy was one of the wealthiest merchants 
of his day, elsewhere referred to in this nar- 
rative as suffering immense losses by his 
advances to the government, when its needs 
were great and its credit was low, and in 
other ways. Tristram Dalton was a Senator 
of the United States from Massachusetts, in 
the First Congress under the Constitution ; 
and Theophilus Bradbury, afterwards ap- 
pointed to the bench of the supreme court 
of the State, was a member of the Federal 
House of Representatives during a part of 
Washington's administration. Indeed, from 
some of the early inhabitants of the town 
are descended not a few of the principal 
families in the capital of the State ; and its 
representatives, by some tie of original or 
later connection, are scattered throughout 
the whole country. 



Former Gentility, 35 

I linger somewhat longer and lovingly 
upon this preliminary part of whatever 
story I may have to tell, because I am 
aware of nothing in the literature of New 
England which furnishes precisely similar 
reminiscences, and because pictures of past 
manners, if truthfully portrayed, can hardly 
fail to be both interesting and useful. We 
heard plentiful stories, in our youth, of a 
higher style of living in colonial days, of 
coaches kept by the upper class of citizens ; 
of their slaves, whom we knew in their 
emancipated condition as gardeners and 
■waiters in general ; of the cocked hats, the 
gold-embroidered garments, the laced ruf- 
fles of the gentlemen, and the highly orna- 
mented, but rather stiff garniture in which 
the ladies with their powdered heads saw 
fit to array themselves, as they now present 
themselves to us on the living canvas of 
Copley. It was in the handsome residence 
of Mr. Dalton, long after his decease, that I 
saw hangings of gilded morocco leather on 



36 Old New England Traits* 

the walls of the principal room, — a substi- 
tute for the wall-paper in common use, and 
which I have never seen or heard of in any 
other instance, in the United States. 

Our collector of the customs was pecul- 
iarly one of this class of gentlemen of the 
old school. He was a person of very warm 
temperament and of remarkable character- 
istics ; an ardent Democrat, who, upon the 
accession of President Jefferson, had suc- 
ceeded Colonel W , the first collector 

of the port, appointed by Washington, under 
v/hom he had served with distinction in the 
Revolutionary War. The residence of the 
latter, and the office of customs itself, in 
those simpler days, were in the house which 
was afterwards the birthplace of the writer 
of these sketches. To that war the suc- 
cessor of the old soldier principally owed a 
large fortune, which he had accumulated as 
the result of his privateering adventures; 
and it is said that the prizes came in so 
plentifully, that once he lifted up his hand 



The Collector of Cttstoms, 37 

and declared, " O Lord, it is enough ! " 
However this may be, it is certain that not 
long afterwards his riches gradually van- 
ished, and he was compelled to seek and ob- 
tained the office upon which he supported 
his declining days. Though "■ aristocratic " 
enough in his own personal character and 
demeanor, he was not naturally in much 
favor with the grandees of the old Federal 
town ; but they stood in awe of him, never- 
theless ; for he had been very rich, and in 
his less prosperous days was still a person 
of the most impulsive and resolute spirit. 
His appearance in public was very marked. 
His person was manly and his countenance 
singularly striking. He dressed in black, 
his small-clothes terminating in white cot- 
ton stockings down to his gouty foot. On 
his white head, decorated with a queue, was 
his three-cornered hat. He seemed to take 
a pride in walking up the principal busi- 
ness street of the town, at the time of high 
" 'Change," and paying attention to no one, 



38 Old Neiv Eiiglmid Traits, 

to utter his not always very conciliatory 
thoughts aloud, in regard to his contempo- 
raries and matters in general, as he threw 
out sideways the gouty foot aforesaid, on 
his way to the one o'clock dinner, which 
was the fashion of the time. 

But the Revolutionary War exhausted 
the fortunes of many prosperous men of 
the day ; and the story is told of one very 
rich merchant, who could drive in his own 
carriage several days' journey — when such 
a journey over difficult roads was hardly so 
much as could be accomplished by " the hol- 
low, pampered jades of Asia," — and sleep 
in his own house every night. He lent 
immense sums, for the time, to the Revolu- 
tionary government, received what he could 
recover in depreciated currency, and failed. 
At the period of my narrative, the country 
was suffering from the consequences of 
another war, and the once active commerce 
of the old town was reduced to the lowest 
ebb. It was then that active emigration 



A Worthy Vermonter, 39 

began from the sterile soil of New England 
— since rendered so much more productive 
by intelligent cultivation — to the fertile 
region known as " The Ohio ; " just as, not 
much more than half a century ago, peo- 
ple talked of " The Coos country " in New 
Hampshire, and within a few years we 
spoke of the " Far West," brought at length 
within the compass of ordinary travel and 
civilization. 

As a picture of the rigors and extremi- 
ties, I fear only too common, of early New 
England life, among its hardy agricultural 
population, I present extracts of a letter re- 
ceived, from a venerable friend, a few years 
ago, who from the depths of poverty, hav- 
ing emigrated in his youth to wild lands 
not very far West, had risen to comparative 
wealth, which he devoted to useful pur- 
poses. In fact, the son of an extremely 
poor Vermont farmer became, by his own 
energy and integrity, the possessor of a 
competent fortune, which enabled him, with 



40 Old New Engla^td Traits, 

views far surpassing the immediate claims 
of this transitory world, to build a church 
and to establish a flourishing educational 
institution, destined long, I trust, to dis- 
pense infinite blessings to future genera- 
tions. Thus, after some preliminary mat- 
ter, he proceeds to say, under date of 
March i6, 1866: — 

" My father was one of the poor men of Ver- 
mont. When I was a small boy I have pealed 
many a birch broom for a sixpence.-^ My Fa- 
ther could get one shilling for what he made, 
take them on his back, carry them four or five 
miles, sell them, bring home a little meal, or a 
little bread, sometimes a half bushel Potatoes. 
My mother would go two or three miles, and do 
a washing, bring home at night a loaf of wry 
bread, and a small peace was all we had for 
supper and a smaller Piece in the morning. 
Sometimes we was allowed one Potato roasted 
in the ashes — no Hearth in the old log-House. 

1 These brooms are made by peeling strips from the 
stump, which are fastened below. 



A Striking and Stiggestive Letter, 41 

My mother has stirred butter in a tea-cup with 
the point of a knife, to keep her little children 
from starving. My Father had about half acre 
of oats — poor fence — the old cow got in the 
oats and died. Then came the pinch — we as 
little children had to flee to the woods to get 
something to sustain life — no schools, no 
meetings — nothing but hunger and despair. 
I lived with my Father until I was twenty-one 
years old. After I was sixteen my Father im- 
proved a little in living. When I was a little 
over twenty-one I got me a wife — we was both 
Poor — three knifes, three forks, three teacups, 
three chairs, a poor bed — hardly could we 
keep house. But our courage was good — my 
wife always standing by me, through all my 
trouble and trials — shoulder to shoulder — 
heart & hand, from the day of our marriage 
until the day of her Death. No man never had 
a better wife than I had — always kind to the 
Poor and to all her relations. She is now in 
the Grave Yard, and my judgment is, she is well 
prepared for the next world — and for the good 
feeling I have had for her for over fifty-six 



42 Old New England Traits, 

years, I have Erected a monument over her 
grave weighing 7 tons, and twenty-one feet 
high — it is a splendid monument — cost me 
over $600.00. 

" On the Eighth day of last July the Bishop 
confirmed 28 in our Church at the every- 
thing in good order — the singing was com- 
plete — my Voice is still heard above all the 
singers and I still stand at the head of the 
choir — I am only 77. — On the i6th day of 
last October, Previous notice being given, the 
wardens and Vestry met at my house — one 
minister was also present, a Lawyer being called 
to do the business. At 2 o'clock, p. m. I com- 
menced handing over Deeds of land, Buildings, 
Bonds, mortgages, money & furniture, to the 
amount of nineteen thousand and five hundred 
Dollars, the use and interest only to be used 

for the Church and the Institute; but in 

case there should be a failure of the Church 
& school, for seven years, at any one time, 
then the Property to go back to my Heirs. 

*' I have been schooling from 7 to 1 1 Poor 
children, yearly — I am now not schooling as 



What the Letter indicates, 43 

many — my school is doing well — we have a 
good minister and he is a good Preacher. The 
Church is doing well. I am now commencing 
one more building, 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, 
and three stories high, for the convenience of 

more room for Boarders in the Institute. 

" I wrung more Bells at the fall of Richmond 
than any man in the United States, which they 
was all purchased with one man's money — 7 
was the number, 4 large ones & 3 small ones 
— it is true I was a little opposed to the 
War — but no matter. The Brick Church and 

the Buildings I built for the Institute now 

with Interest cost me now over $43,000. They 
are all Paid for and I am out of Debt. I have 
furnished every stick of wood for the Church, 
and have carried the most of it in since it was 
built. I still wring the Bells on all occasions." 
etc. etc. 

There is, perhaps, a touch of the garru- 
lity of age in this good man's recital ; but 
I consider his record of his early life, slight 
as it is, yet too strikingly suggestive to 



44 Old New England Trails. 

be left to chances which might await a 
private letter. Indeed, the character thus 
displayed is surely equal to that of the best 
of the old Romans, in the middling class 
of life, enlightened too by a living faith of 
which they had no conception ; and the 
sketch gives fair warrant for the conclusion, 
that, in point of manly simplicity and in- 
tegrity, the traits and the trials of those 
elder worthies who helped to settle our 
republican institutions have not been over- 
drawn. 



CHAPTER II. 

I SHOULD scarcely deem it expedient to 
enter at much detail into the eccentricities 
of our good townspeople, though it seems 
to me that in our own street I could recall 
enough to make a pretty sizable volume. 

But one feature of the times deserves a 
passing notice. I refer to the inconsider- 
able number of insane persons, compared 
with the sad increase of that unfortunate 
class in our own day, and the manner in 
which they were treated. Of course, a 
more widely extended population multi- 
plies the sum of every description of dis- 
ease. Besides, our ancestors were a hardier 
race than their descendants, more inured 
to the regular routine of physical toil, less 
given than the men and women of the pres- 
ent day to hurtful indulgence, and far less 
exposed to the disturbing excitements of 



46 Old New England Trails. 

business and pleasure. So far as I know, 
there were but two really insane persons in 
our population of some seven or eight thou- 
sand, though doubtless certain others were 
more or less " light-headed." One of those 
two was sullenly crazy, and accounted dan- 
gerous, and therefore subjected to physical 
restraint ; the other, generally harmless, 
roamed through the town at his own will, 
caUing occasionally upon the acquaintance 
of his better days, and making magnificent 
promises of the benefits he intended to 
bestow, " when his ship came in." If I had 
inherited only a moderate dividend of the 
proceeds of the successive ships and their 
cargoes, which he promised my mother, on 
the above favorable contingency, usually 
calling her out from dinner to whisper to 
her these magnificent promises, more to 
her alarm than satisfaction, though being a 
woman of spirit she put a brave face upon 
it — I should look down upon a Roths- 
child, an Astor, or a Vanderbilt with nat- 



Insane Persons, 47 

ural contempt. Sometimes, incarceration 
was thought necessary, also, in his case ; 
and I have a vivid recollection Of the place 
of confinement allotted to each patient. 

This was in the yard of the almshouse, 
for state and county asylums had not then 
been thought of, and the strong wooden 
building in which they were placed con- 
sisted of two apartments, perhaps twelve 
feet square, one above and the other be- 
neath the surface of the ground ; the latter, 
in fact, a dungeon with one barred window 
on a level with the yard. Here they passed 
their gloomy hours as they might, in soli- 
tude and darkness, scarcely relieved by 
light from without, with nothing to alle- 
viate the horrors of their condition, and 
probably considered in a state too hopeless 
to admit of any remedy. The tenant of 
the upper cell was comparatively lively, on 
the occasion of resort to his window for 
conversation, or out of curiosity, which was 
freely permitted ; but his neighbor in the 



48 Old New England Traits, 

dungeon was dangerous ; and I can never 
forget the terror inspired by a sudden and 
vicious attempt made by him to seize the 
legs of us children through the bars, as we 
stood conversing with the inmate of the 
room above. Science and humanity have 
done very much, in modern times, toward 
the restoration of such unhappy beings, 
who are in a majority of cases susceptible 
of cure, or of improvement enough to war- 
rant their return to domestic life. But it 
is to be feared we are yet far behind, in 
this country, the more enlightened and 
effectual methods pursued for this purpose 
in some other civilized nations. 

On one side of the street above alluded 
to lived for a long time, in my boyhood, an 
ancient shoemaker entirely alone ; and as 
he guarded his residence with great se- 
crecy and sold none of his wares, curious 
people were puzzled to understand how he 
supported existence. He was known to 
be partially deranged. Mischievous boys, 



A Scrupulous Shoemaker, 49 

sometimes, gathered in numbers, would 
often assail his door with stones, standing 
ready for a start. But if they were on the 
watch, so was Pettengill, from previous ex- 
perience, waiting behind his door with a 
heavy wooden bar in his hand, and giving 
instant chase to the flying urchins, would 
send the bar rattling at their heels. One 
day, after a season of unusual quiet, one of 
our lads anxious to penetrate his mystery, 
ventured to knock gently at the barred por- 
tal, was admitted, and expressed his wish 
to purchase a pair of shoes. The old man 
opened several chests containing the arti- 
cles sought for, and finally selected a pair 
which proved a fit ; but upon his visitor's 
making known his readiness to buy, the 
maker deliberately returned them to their 
receptacle, locked it fast and gravely de- 
clared, that he did " not like to part with 
them, for fear of spoiling his assortment." 

The next building was occupied by a 
respectable English couple as a dwelling- 
4 



50 Old New England Traits, 

place, with a small grocer's shop in front. 
They had no children, except one strapping 
son of the old lady by a former husband, 
grown to man's estate, and whose business 
seemed to be to lounge about the premises 
in drab small-clothes ; for I never saw him 
do anything. The old lady might be seen 
of a morning, with iron pattens on her feet 
and her clothes tucked up, mopping the 
floor of the shop ; but in the afternoon much 
more genteelly attired in silks of an ancient 
fashion. Mr. Brown was a very quiet, inof- 
fensive person, the wife a little high-strung. 
It is certain that they had occasional do- 
mestic bickerings, perhaps about the young 
man in the knee-breeches ; for on one occa- 
sion it is alleged that the old matron was 
overheard to address her spouse, with a 
slightly Hibernian accentuation, — " Brune, 
Brune, ye case-knife looking son of a gun ! 
I married ye neither for love, nor for 
money, but the pure convanience of the 
shop ! " As these worthy people have long 



A Stcrprised Culprit 51 

ago passed away, there seems no scandal 
in detailing this little family incident. 

Directly opposite these premises was a 
large old-fashioned house, still standing, 
and, a century before, the residence of the 
minister of the First Church. It was long 
afterwards occupied by a noted magistrate 
for the trial of small actions, who served 
many years as town -clerk, and was an en- 
ergetic orator at town-meetings and in par- 
ish affairs. A culprit was once brought 
before him for stealing a gentleman's set 
of new shirts. The fact was stiffly denied. 
" A pretty story," said the accused party, 
" that I should take his shirts ! " An offi- 
cial scrutiny, however, soon exhibited him 
standing with the half dozen articles of 
attire, one over another, upon his person. 
" What a villain ! " said the astonished jus- 
tice. " Why didn't you tell me you was a 
villain and save the time of the court, of the 
witnesses, and the spectators, by owning up 
you were a villain, in the first place .'' " 



52 Old New England Traits, 

The citizens of the old town were pretty 
thorough Puritans, by inheritance and in- 
clination, at the middle of the last century. 
But the minister of the First Church was, 
in his day, a gentleman noted for his lib- 
eral tastes and accomplishments. He had 
a picture painted on a broad panel over 
the fire-place of his library, representing 
himself and several others of the cloth sit- 
ting around a table, in the full canonicals 
of wig, gown, and band, before each a 
foaming mug of ale, and each supplied with 
a tobacco pipe from which rolled volumes 
of narcotic fumes. At the top of the paint- 
ing was , a legend in the Latin language, of 
which the following is, I believe, a correct 
copy, — 

" In essentialibus unitas, in non-essentialibus libertas, 
in omnibus charitas." 

They appeared to be having a jolly time, 
and evidently considered the slight indul- 
gences to which they were addicted among 
the moral non-essentials, however neces- 



A Curious Painting, 53 

sary to their physical comfort. In this pic- 
ture, which is still extant, the rules of 
perspective were not rigorously obeyed. 
In fact, the table is considerably tipped, 
whether supposed to result from some sud- 
den hilarious movement on the part of the 
reverend compotators or owing to want of 
skill in the artist, I am not able to testify. 
Indeed, the manners of the times had not 
then attained their present professed strict- 
ness in regard to the use of exhilarating 
liquors, and I have inspected a tavern-bill 
rendered to the principal citizens, for arti- 
cles of this sort consumed on some joyful 
public occasion, at a much later period, the 
amount of which in quantity, though not 
in price, would astonish a modern city 
council. 

At the corner of the street stood an 
ancient tavern, the principal establishment 
of the kind in the place, at which in stag- 
ing times all the stage-coaches from Boston 
and the eastward hauled up to change 



54 Old New England Traits. 

horses. It was kept by the father of the 
popular host of one of the best known of 
the long-estabHshed New York hotels. I 
well remember seeing a considerable body 
of British sailors halted there for refresh- 
ment, under guard, on their way to some 
prison in the interior, during the War of 
1812. They were true British tars of the 
traditional type, with immense clubs of 
hair, tied up with eel-skins and hanging 
short and thick down their necks. They 
seemed in no wise depressed by their con- 
dition and in fact were treated extremely 
well, for the general feeling of the town 
was decidedly adverse to the war. I also 
remember a gathering in front of the tav- 
ern, when the evening coach was expected, 
with the idea of mobbing an unpopular 
general officer who was to pass through by 
that conveyance. But a better sentiment 
was inculcated by the more orderly portion 
of the assembly, and the obnoxious warrior 
was not molested, otherwise than by ex- 



State of Parties. 55 

pressions of dislike, either upon alighting, 
or when taking his place to resume his 
journey. Politics ran very high at the 
time, almost to the entire suspension of 
social relations between the differing par- 
ties, — the Federalists, who opposed the 
war, and were accused of unpatriotic sym- 
pathy with the cause of the enemy, and 
the Republicans, often stigmatized as Jaco- 
bins, who were charged with the principles 
and designs which had given impulse to 
the great French Revolution. Doubtless 
these parties shared, on the one side and 
the other, in the hereditary enmity, long 
since allayed if not altogether extinguished, 
between England and France. But what- 
ever might be the general turn of political 
sentiment, both sides felt a patriotic pride 
in the success of the American arms. 
Hence, it is probable, the temper of the 
crowd assembled to do dishonor to the un- 
lucky general. While the Republicans were 
indignant at a supposed needless national 



56 Old New E^tgland Traits. 

disaster, the Federalists could scarcely re- 
joice at it ; and thus the moderation of the 
latter tended to restrain the former from 
the display of any actually violent demon- 
stration. At the same period, there was 
formed, among the older administration 
men of the day, a veteran military organ- 
ization, of those beyond the ordinary age 
of military service, well-known locally un- 
der the significant appellation of the " Sil- 
ver Greys." The corps was composed of 
elderly merchants and traders and retired 
sea-captains, and their drills manifested at 
least the ambition of military prowess. 
Their opponents alleged that their com- 
pany was formed for merely political pur- 
poses, and to overawe the town ; but their 
own doubtless more just solution of the 
matter was, that their object was to aid in 
repelling invasion, in the unlikely case that 
the British troops should land upon their 
own borders. They gave more promise, 
certainly, of efficient service, should dan- 



Damage of War, 57 

ger arise, than could be expected of the su- 
perannuated Trojans chief of Priam's court, 
as their catalogue is translated by Pope 
from the living record of Homer : — 

" Here sat the seniors of the Trojan race, 

Old Priam's chiefs and most in Priam's grace ; 

The king the first, Tliymoetes at his side, 

Lampus and Clitias, long in comicil tried, 

Panthus and Hicetaon, once the strong, 

And next, the wisest of the reverend throng, 

Antenor grave and sage Ucalegon, 

Leaned on the walls and basked before the sun ; 

Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage. 

But wise through time and narrative with age, 

In summer days like grasshoppers rejoice, 

A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice," etc. 

The town had suffered everything from 
the war and the interdiction of commerce 
in which it had been most actively en- 
gaged, preceding the event. Multitudes 
were absolutely ruined, and the gaunt wolf 
stood grinning at almost every other thres- 
hold. Among the memorials of that great 
struggle, it may be as well to mention the 
rusted cannon planted for posts at the cor- 



58 Old New England Traits, 

ners of certain of the streets, the breech 
sunk in the ground and a bomb-shell fas- 
tened in the muzzle. At such a time, it is 
not strange that force occasionally took the 
place of law. 

I could recall not a few instances in 
which, under the impulse of political re- 
sentment, passion got the better of judg- 
ment. One day, the marshal of the United 
States, in his cocked hat and with other 
official insignia, entered the tavern I have 
mentioned, in quest of a fugitive from jus- 
tice. He inquired of a person whom he 
met in the public apartment, if he had 

lately seen one Captain E , who, it 

seems, on some supposed provocation, had 
only thrown a custom-house officer into the 
dock in one of our eastern harbors. The 
person addressed by the marshal said that 

Captain E had just passed down the 

street, and when the marshal turned to 
pursue the culprit, that individual, who 
was no other than the one just addressed, 



A Futile Chase, 59 

slipped out of another door, ran by the 
stable in the rear of the tavern and called 
upon Jem Knox, the hostler, to harness a 
chaise with all speed and to follow him 
forthwith in his flight. It appears, that the 
story of the captain's adventure was already 
pretty well known in the public places of 
the town, and as a visit of the marshal from 
Boston was a very extraordinary event in a 
place usually so quiet, a prying character 
who was upon the spot asked him if he was 
not looking for Captain E . Upon re- 
ceiving an affirmative reply, — " That's the 
man," said he, " you have just spoken to." 
The marshal started in pursuit and the 
captain had called out to such persons of 
his acquaintance as saw him running, that 
he was chased by a United States' officer. 
Half way through the street, one Clement 
Starr, a stalwart Englishman, who lived at 
the spot and whose sympathies, political 
and otherwise, were with the weaker party, 
seized the marshal by the collar and in- 



6o Old New England Traits, 

sisted upon knowing what was the cause 
of the considerable tumult which the out- 
cry — '' Stop him ! " had raised. Escaping 
this obstacle, the poor marshal was soon 
afterwards clasped in the vigorous embrace 
of a spirited matron, who stood on her 
door-step as he passed, and, besides being 
an acquaintance of the captain, was of the 
same political proclivities as those of the 
retreating mariner. 

While tearing himself away from this 
lively lady, Knox drove furiously by, pulled 
up as he overtook the fugitive, who, as a 
witness of the affair told me, tumbled into 
the chaise, and was soon out of the reach 
of the threatening danger. Whether he 
was ever taken afterwards, or what became 
of the prosecution, I have never heard. 

Not far from us lived a worthy widow, 
with a family of children, and on one oc- 
casion she was heard to mingle rather curi- 
ously an office of devotion with a somewhat 
severe threat of domestic discipline. It 



A Dangerous " Chief of Policer 6i 
was a day in summer, and the ^Yindows 
being open, a passer-by heard her objurga- 
tion. It seems the family had assembled at 
the dinner-table, and her oldest son began 
by making premature demonstrations to- 
ward the provisions, when his mother 
emphatically addressed him: "You Bob 
Barker, if you stick your fork into that 
meat before I've asked a blessing, I'll be 

the death of ye ! " 

There was a worthy shipmaster, also, 
who used to trade to Hayti, when that stal- 
wart colored person, Christophe, was the 
Emperor, who used to say, " Put a bag of 

coffee in the mouth of h , and a Yankee 

will be sure to go after it." On one occa- 
sion, so the story ran. Captain H com- 
plained of some insult from one of Chris- 
tophe's ragged soldiery. The fact reached 
the ears of that potentate, who desired to 
stand well with Americans, and our towns- 
man was summoned before him. He found 
in the presence of the monarch the whole 



62 Old New England Traits, 

body of the scanty force on duty in the 
town. " Can you pick out the man who 
insulted you?" asked the sable autocrat. 
Captain H pointed him out ; but be- 
ginning to fear the infliction of some pun- 
ishment too severe, attempted to extenuate 
the offence. " Stop ! " cried Christophe, and 
called the soldier near him. " Do you say 
this was the man of whom you have told 
me } " " Yes, sir, it is," replied the alarmed 
captain ; " but " — In an instant Christophe 
had drawn his sword, and with one blow 
struck off the head of the unlucky culprit. 
The terror of the accusing party, at such 
a sudden and bloody consummation, may 
be partly imagined. He procured his clear- 
ance as soon as possible, and I believe 
made his future voyages to waters under a 
less summarily sanguinary domination. 

We had also a soi-disant nobleman, of 
really the humblest extraction, and ignorant 
to a singular degree, but known by his ec- 
centricities far and wide, who, on the score 



''Lord'' Timothy Dexter. 63 

of a little money accidentally amassed, pro- 
claimed himself, by an inscription beneath 
a wooden statue of himself, in front of his 
residence, — " Lord of the East, Lord 
OF THE West, and the Greatest Phi- 
losopher IN THE Western World." He 
decorated his court-yard with an extraordi- 
nary amount of lumber of this sort, in the 
shape of human beings, and dumb creatures 
of many sorts, each statue standing upon 
its separate pillar, to the intense admira- 
tion of the gaping rustics who visited the 
town to inspect it ; and he fairly beat the 
Scottish Earl of Buchan, who was infected 
with a similar mania. Upon an arch di- 
rectly opposite his front door, he had placed 
Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. Adams, 
on the right, was bareheaded, and upon an 
inquiry by some one why this distinction 
was made, since Jefferson's chapeau was in 
its place, the great " lord " replied : " Do 
you suppose I would have anybody stand 
at the right hand of Washington, with his 



64 Old New England Traits. 

hat on ? " He was said, also, upon certain 
hilarious occasions, celebrated in a tomb 
which he had constructed under a summer- 
house in his garden, to have indulged in 
the mastication of bank-bills between slices 
of bread and butter, doubtless to the envy 
of his boon companions ; not, as might be 
inferred, of the better or richer classes, 
though, considering all things, it is perhaps 
needless to hope that these current sym- 
bols of value were a little cleaner than 
most of those of modern date. All this 
statuary rubbish, however, was long ago 
removed ; and the house and grounds, by 
the taste of the present owner, have since 
ranked among the most pleasing objects 
of inspection in the town. 

This notably low and singularly eccentric 
character, as I have remarked, fairly beat 
that other oddity, — in a different class of 
life and contemporary with him, — the Scot- 
tish Earl of Buchan, elder half-brother of 
Lord Chancellor Erskine. That nobleman 



A Contemporaneous Collector. 65 

was possessed with a passion for the busts 
of persons, eminent or otherwise, not dissim- 
ilar to that of our New England " lord " for 
wooden statuary, and perhaps was actuated 
by equal vanity, though a person of real 
literary accomplishment, and in no sense, 
except as mentioned, to be put in compari- 
son with the other. He displayed to his 
visitors a large and most incongruous col- 
lection of these objects of art in a sort of 
grotto excavated in his garden, thus rever- 
sing, however, the more conspicuous pro- 
cedure of his brother connoisseur, who ex- 
hibited his assemblage of rarities in his 
front yard. The Scottish Earl, certainly, 
had some literary pretensions, while the 
"lord" Timothy, who could neither read 
nor write with ordinary expertness, hon- 
ored the Muses, also, by affording counte- 
nance to a poet. Whether this patronage 
extended to much material sustenance may 
be considered doubtful, since this son of 
Apollo generally stood in the market- 
5 



66 Old New England Traits, 

place, when not wandering away to other 
parts, for the disposal of his wares, dressed 
in semi-clerical habiliments, himself being 
of a singularly grave aspect, and retailed , 
frightful ballads of his own composition, 
and small wares of various kinds from a 
basket on his arm. It is questionable 
-whether any of these literary productions 
survive to the present day ; and I fear that 
not one of them had any spark of that vital- 
ity, potent to influence popular sentiment, 
which Fletcher of Saltoun attributed to the 
songs of the people. 

In the centre of this market-place — a 
space inclosed on all sides by various 
shops or stores, and for some unaccount- 
able reason styled " Market Square," since 
•its irregular outline much more resembled a 
truncated triangle — stood the town pump, 
on the spot originally occupied by the 
meeting-house of the First Church, already 
mentioned. On two sides of the pump 
were set the wonted hand-carts of two 



Market Sqtiare and Thanksgiving. 67 

superannuated individuals, whose ginger- 
bread, candies, and apples were the delight 
of such urchins as were lucky enough to 
have coppers to buy with ; for those con- 
venient mediums of exchange were not too 
plentiful among boys in 18 — , and frequent- 
ly not with their parents either. These 
old men were the undisturbed possessors 
of the ground, wheeling their vehicles to 
the spot at early morning, and standing 
by them all day, though they never seemed 
to me to be driving a very thriving busi- 
ness. 

But the glory of the Square was during 
the week before Thanksgiving, — then, as 
now, appointed for a day late in November, 
when it was often difficult to make one's 
way through the throng of teams, and es- 
pecially sleighs, loaded with poultry fat- 
tened for the occasion, and sometimes ven- 
ison and abundance of other commodities 
for domestic use. The mention of sleighs 
leads me to recur to a former remark 



6S Old New England Traits, 

upon the earlier approach of winter in 
those times ; for the employment of sleighs 
implies the presence of snow upon the 
ground ; and the farmers had frequently 
driven from a great distance, " up country," 
from parts of New Hampshire and Ver- 
mont, even from the borders of Canada, 
perhaps a hundred and fifty or two hun- 
dred miles and more away, to attend the 
market in our town ; sometimes as many 
as a hundred loaded country sleighs, or on 
other occasions as many wagons, in a sin- 
gle day. The construction of the Middlesex 
Canal, connecting the waters of the Mer- 
rimack with those of the Charles, diverted 
the main part of this traffic to Boston ; and 
railways finally conveyed to the capital 
most of the remainder which came from 
any considerable distance. Wistful eyes, 
in the presence of these heaping dainties, 
were sometimes averted, no doubt, from a 
consciousness of empty pockets ; yet there 
were always generous hearts and bounte- 



A Remarkable Legend, 69 

ous hands to meet the exigencies of every 
neighborhood ; and we may be sure that no 
householder of decent repute, however poor 
or unlucky, and probably few others, even 
if a little tarnished in the moral world's 
esteem, lacked some kind friend who saw 
to it, that the accustomed turkey or chick- 
ens smoked on the board before the eyes 
of his hungry children on that day, at least, 
of all the year. 

But, unless respectable legends are to 
be peremptorily discredited, an incident 
once took place in this Market Square, of 
which I doubt if any other New England 
town can show the parallel. I am about 
to relate a statement made to me, not 
many years ago, by an elderly gentleman 
of excellent character and standing, a jus- 
tice of the peace and of the quorum, and a 
devout member of the Orthodox Church. 
The story was told with all gravity and 
imphcit confidence in its truth ; and some 
may think it exhibits in a striking light 



70 Old New England Traits, 

the extent of human credulity and the 
imperfection of human testimony : '' My 
father," said this worthy person, " has 
often told me of being in Market Square 
when a man, a woman, and a little dog 
appeared, and soon collected quite a crowd 
by the exhibition of feats of jugglery. At 
length, after a due collection of tribute from 
the standers-by, the man produced a ball 
'of cord from his pocket, threw it into the 
air, and began to ascend it, hand over hand. 
The woman followed, and after her the lit- 
tle dog. While the crowd was gaping, in 
expectation of the return of this mysterious 
trio, some one drove into the market-place 
and inquired the occasion of this unusual 
congregation. Upon being informed, he 
said, that he had just met such a party on 
the road, about a mile from the town." I 
had read the most extraordinary accounts, 
by British officers and others, of exhibitions 
like this, which they alleged they had often 
witnessed in India. I remembered one, in 



Strong Faith, 71 

particular, where tigers and other unwel- 
come guests, and even the somewhat un- 
wieldy bulk of an elephant, had seemingly 
been brought down, before their eyes, 
upon a cable fastened by some mysterious 
agency far aloft ; for I suppose it behooved 
to be made fast in some inconceivable re- 
gion of the upper air. But that a similar 
demonstration could have been made in 
a sober New England town, at noonday, 
could scarcely fail to "put me from my 
faith." It impressed me, however, as at least 
an extraordinary relation, coming from such 
a source ; and happening to meet another 
ancient and equally reputable friend on 
the same day, one, too, who had been much 
about the world in the capacity of a nav- 
igator to foreign climes, I took occasion to 
relate to him the strange narrative which 
I had just heard. " Oh," said he, " there is 
no doubt about it; my mother has often 
told me she was present and saw the whole 
transaction." "In the mouth of two or 



72 Old New Engluiid Traits, 

three witnesses," says the Scripture, " shall 
every word be established." In this case, 
it will be observed, the witnesses were 
two, but both at second-hand. I shall not 
vouch, therefore, for anything except that, 
as Scott says, " I tell the tale as 'twas told 
to me," — and it may be set down as one of 
these veritable legends which all persons 
are at liberty to reject or accept, as they 
please. I expect to try the faith of the 
reader still further before I have finished 
this historical sketch. People often tell us, 
nowadays, that vulgar superstitions are al- 
together things of the past. This may be 
so in public ; but I imagine that in private 
there is a lurking tinge of it in every hu- 
man bosom. 



CHAPTER III. 

In maritime towns, at a season of the 
year when there is no inducement for them 
to wander into the fields, boys who have 
nothing else to do, on play-days, are very 
apt to lounge, more or less, on the wharves 
and in the Market Place. When quite a 
youngster, I witnessed a scene on the spot 
last named, the incidents of which are as 
vivid in my. memory as at the moment 
when they occurred, more than half a cen- 
tury ago. Though the commerce of our 
town had very materially declined from its 
former condition of wonderful activity and 
enterprise, it was still kept up with con- 
siderable semblance of its former spirit, 
and, besides our native vessels, a foreign 
ship occasionally sailed up our beautiful 
river. A few miles beyond the stream, in 
the neighboring State, dwelt a population 



74 Old New England Trails, 

chiefly agricultural, a portion of which, 
pursuing the avocation of small farmers 
and fishermen, alternately, for they were 
directly on the borders of the sea and 
somewhat isolated in their position, be- 
sides, were certainly a httle wild in char- 
acter and habits ; though I am told that 
great improvement among them, in these 
respects, has taken place of later years. 
We called them " Algerines," from which 
epithet, more opprobrious than probably 
just, our estimate of their pretensions to 
civilization may be inferred. It was the 
practice of these people to bring their fish 
in whale-boats to our market, which was 
the nearest to their homes, and to dispose 
of this fruit of their often perilous labors 
either for money, or for such commodities 
as they required. I was standing, one af- 
ternoon, near a group of foreign sailors, 
believed to be Spaniards, with the natural 
curiosity of a boy, and rough -looking spec- 
imens of humanity they certainly were. It 



A Veteran Good at Need, 75 

seemed that they had fallen into dispute 
with the crew, some three or four men, of 
an Algerine boat, and though the language 
on one side and the other was altogether 
unintelligible to the parties, the tones were 
uncommonly high. Doubtless, the Span- 
iards were resenting some insult offered by 
the Algerines, — prompted by that sort of 
jealousy and dislike with which the lower 
classes of English blood have been in the 
habit of regarding those of other national- 
ities. The quarrel seemed especially at its 
height between one of the Spanish crew 
and a young man of remarkable stature 
in coarse seaman's dress, with a great bush 
of long yellow locks hanging over the col- 
lar of his jacket, whose name it appeared 
was Souter. The Spanish champion had 
drawn an ugly looking knife, from which 
unfamiliar weapon, flourished so near his 
person, the Algerine instinctively flinched. 
At this critical moment, the patriarch of 
the Yankee crew, a tall, gaunt old man, 



76 Old New England Traits, 

with grizzled hair, stepped into the arena, 
and, seizing the foreigner by the collar, 
cried out, — "Now I'll bet Tom Souter'* 
(pronounced Saouter) " could take this 'ere 
fellow right here by the collar and shake 

every g right aout of him," — using a 

more vulgar phrase, and suiting the action 
to the word so vigorously that the reeling 
and astounded Spaniard was glad enough to 
relinquish the field and to slink away crest- 
fallen with his companions. 

As a further illustration of the ways of 
our neighbors, I will give one more anec- 
dote of an affair which occurred years af- 
terwards. Not far from the hamlet of our 
friends, the Algerines, but within the bor- 
ders of Massachusetts, was another settle- 
ment, on the outskirts of a thriving village, 
the male inhabitants of which also followed 
the calling of small farmers and fishermen, 
some of them diversifying these pursuits 
by the occupation of shoemaking, at the 
ungenial season of the year. They were 



An Interesting Case. 77 

industrious, and far less rude than their 
compatriots, to whom reference has just 
been made. At this point lived three 
young men, hard by each other, and broth- 
ers, of the name, I will say, of Lowe. One 
day a tall and respectable looking old gen- 
tleman called upon the writer of this his- 
tory, announcing himself as Colonel Lowe, 
and the father of the three young men in 
question. He had formerly commanded, it 
seems, a regiment of miUtia, and had a sort 
of semi-miUtary bearing. He was now in 
great agitation and distress, occasioned by 
some trouble in which his sons were in- 
volved, through forcible resistance to the 
civil authorities of the Commonwealth, and 
he required the professional services of 
the writer for their defence. He justly 
regarded it as a case likely to lead to 
very serious consequences, and particularly 
dreaded for the young men the disgraceful 
punishment of the State Prison. It was a 
case to elicit every degree of sympathy for 



yS Old New England Traits, 

the worthy Colonel, and to prompt every 
effort for his relief The facts, as they 
appeared at the trial before the Court of 
Common Pleas, were quite picturesque. A 
constable had appeared with an execution 
against one of the young Lowes, in the 
matter of a claim which he disputed as un- 
just ; but without giving the peace-officer 
opportunity to discharge his duty, he was 
driven from the ground by the trio, in 
mortal terror of his life. The execution 
of the process was then undertaken by a 
somewhat fantastic country deputy sheriff; 
who was ordered off as he attempted to 
approach the parties in defence, and be- 
tween them and the officer there was a 
good deal of raillery, which had an impor- 
tant bearing upon the final result of the 
trial. At length, the elder brother Lowe 
drew a line with a stick across the road 
and defied the officer to pass it, which he 
declined to do, but at once made good his 
retreat, smothering his indignation at such 



Attack and Defence. 79 

a rebuff, until he could give it vent in 
more safety than the existing circum- 
stances warranted. Such reckless conduct 
was not to be endured, and no doubt the 
deputy was laughed at by his neighbors 
for his failure to carry his purpose into 
effect. The majesty of the Commonwealth 
had been insulted in his official person, and 
he determined to summon a posse comitatus, 
to vindicate the power and dignity of the 
law. Stories in the country, especially 
those involving any extraordinary incidents, 
sometimes fly faster than in town, and ac- 
cordingly these young rebels forewarned, 
no doubt, of the peril in prospect, prepared 
themselves, as well as they could, to resist 
the more formidable invasion presently to 
be expected. Before daylight, one morning, 
the mustered force of some twenty men, 
variously armed, led by the valiant sheriff's 
officer, cautiously drew near the premises, 
in the hope of catching the culprits asleep. 
The brothers were too quick for their visit- 



8o Old New England Traits. 

ors, however, and evidently having been 
on the watch had retreated to a barn, se- 
curely fastening the door, and awaited the 
approach of the enemy. They had with 
them certain weapons, which were exhibited 
in the court, consisting of ancient rusty 
halberds and spontoons, probably borne in 
turn by their gallant father, in his several 
gradations of military service. As they 
were summoned to surrender, a musket was 
discharged out of a window of the barn, 
over the heads of the assailants, occasioning 
considerable confusion in their line. As- 
suming courage, at length, axes and crow- 
bars were brought into requisition, and the 
door was forced. As the attacking party 
entered, however, the Lowes let down the 
stairs leading to the story above a heavy 
broad cart-wheel, and as it bounded clatter- 
ing towards the floor below, the assailants 
fled out of doors in a panic, and taking 
advantage of their disorder, the Lowes, 
disregarding the vast disproportion of num- 



A Light Sentience, 8i 

bers, rushed upon them, and a regular 
melee began. It is thought, that the 
smaller party would have been victorious, 
but for an ugly blow on the head of the 
youngest brother, which felled and disa- 
bled him ; whereupon his associates es- 
caped unmolested and he was taken help- 
less into the house, where he remained 
until the time of the trial. Of course, the 
jury found him guilty, for the facts of the 
case were patent ; but it was taken up, by 
exceptions to the ruling of the Judge, into 
the Supreme Court, in which, though it 
would be irreverent to intimate that the 
justices entered at all into the humor of 
such a Donnybrook Fair sort of scrim- 
mage, yet, after argument, and it is pre- 
sumed in consideration of some provoca- 
tion on the part of the sheriffs deputy, 
especially the needlessly warlike and really 
ridiculous aspect he impressed on the affair, 
leading the young men to look upon it 
rather as an invitation to play their part, 
6 



82 Old New England Traits. 

than as a serious purpose to violate the 
law, the sentence imposed was only a few 
months* imprisonment in the common jail. 
The prosecution was never enforced against 
the brothers, and never was more lively 
gratitude displayed, than at the escape of 
the convicted culprit from sentence to the 
ignominious seclusion of the State Prison. 



CHAPTER IV. 

A TERM of the Court of Common Pleas 
was always held in the town in the month 
of September, and "court week" was a 
regular time of holiday for the pupils of 
the higher schools. Some of us attended 
upon these solemn proceedings with ex- 
traordinary interest, especially when crim- 
inal cases were before the court. I know 
not how it is, but suppose it to be the ex- 
pected revelation of incidents, as in the plot 
of a novel, which draws crowds together, in 
most uncomfortable contiguity in a court- 
room, whenever a culprit, especially one of 
more than usually notorious antecedents, is 
put upon his trial. While most of the old- 
fashioned lawyers of the Essex Bar were 
more than respectable for professional ac- 
quisitions and legal skill, there were per- 
sons among them of distinguished ability 



84 Old New England Traits. 

and character ; and real eloquence seldom 
fails to prove peculiarly fascinating to 
youthful hearers. Who could forget, for 
example, with what rapt attention he lis- 
tened, at a somewhat later date, to the 
glowing language and was stirred by the 
honest warmth of Salton stall, incapable by 
nature of attempting to make the worse 
appear the better reason ; or watched that 
marvel, the matchless ingenuity of Choate, 
whose faculties shone brightest, the more 
apparently hopeless was the cause at stake ; 
or thrilled with profound admiration, under 
the resistless influence of Webster's force 
and closeness of argument, rising, with due 
occasion, to the highest point of eloquent 
illustration, when some more than usually 
important matter for adjudication by the 
court called him from the ordinary sphere 
of his great practice to the forum of a 
comparatively inferior tribunal. 

Years afterwards, when I had the honor 
of a place at that Bar, I was much struck 



Social Security, 85 

with the testimony of a respectable witness, 
a farmer named Sheldon, who lived near 
Beverly Corner, upon an indictment of a 
fellow for burglary, in entering Mr. Shel- 
don's house by night and taking the money 
from his pockets in his sleeping chamber 
without disturbing the occupants. One of 
the earliest questions proposed to him was, 
— " How did the robber gain entrance to 
the house } " and, by the way, the man had 
been previously employed as a laborer by 
the farmer. " I suppose he came in by the 
usual way," was the answer. " He came 
in by the door, do you mean } " " Yes." 
" How did he get it open } " " I suppose 
he lifted the latch." " Do you mean to 
say, that the door was not fastened } " 
" Yes I do ; we never fasten it." The cul- 
prit was convicted upon various satisfactory 
testimony ; but the incident betokens a 
state of security, at that period, and a 
rarity of flagitious offences, which puts to 
shame the demoralization of our own day. 



S6 Old New England Traits, 

For the house in question stood on the 
high road and was scarcely more than half 
a mile distant from a populous neighbor- 
hood, and within less than three miles of 
a town with many thousands of inhabi- 
tants. 

Strangely enough, considering the want 
of precaution on the part of the farmer, 
coming down, doubtless, from a still sim- 
pler period of social life, not half a mile 
from Mr. Sheldon's house stood a solitary 
habitation upon a desolate tract of land, 
and also near the highway, which at a 
time not long subsequent had acquired a 
very evil reputation ; and with this house 
became connected circumstances which 
some may think scarcely admit of the 
solution of merely accidental occurrence. 
At the autumnal term of the court just in- 
dicated, when I had become a young prac- 
titioner at the bar, a certain vixenish old 
beldam was put upon trial for the offence 
of maintaining this ill reputed establish- 



A Wicked Old Termagant. Z'] 

ment. Her demeanor was singularly ex- 
ceptional ; for she did not scruple to inter- 
rupt the proceedings with the most fluent 
billingsgate, and upon receiving sentence 
berated the presiding judge in language 
betokening an extraordinary depth of des- 
perate hardihood. Inquiry revealed the 
fact, that her solitary house, standing 
upon an elevated plain of some extent, 
the ground rising from the shores of Wen- 
ham Lake, in front but little removed from 
the road, and the space in its rear inter- 
spersed with scattered groups of funereal 
pines, had been the resort of various des- 
peradoes, several of whom had suffered 
punishment for their crimes, and one of 
them had not long before committed sui- 
cide in jail, to escape pubhc execution for 
a most atrocious murder. 

Late one day, in the beginning of the 
following Spring, I happened to be called 
upon to proceed to Boston, distant some 
forty miles, upon the sudden requirement 



88 Old New England Traits, 

of certain business to be transacted the 
next morning in the city. It was before 
the railway was in operation, and to ac- 
complish the object in view I was to drive 
this considerable distance in a chaise, at 
night and alone. I was accustomed to 
this mode of locomotion, in my attendance 
upon the several sessions of the courts in 
the county, and the idea of fear never 
entered my mind. Accordingly, starting 
about dusk, at half past ten o'clock of a 
starlit night, I had reached a point in the 
journey where the road rises by a gentle 
ascent to the plain, on which stood " the 
house of evil counsel." All at once, the 
scene and the narrative of the previous 
Fall flashed upon my mind. Before leav- 
ing home, I had bethought myself of a 
brace of pistols in my possession, which I 
had loaded and placed in the pockets of my 
overcoat. And now comes the remarkable 
circumstance to which I have already re- 
ferred. These weapons had been borrowed 



A Night Adventure. 89 

of a friend, months before, when in the 
midst of an unusually exciting election for 
a member of congress, continuing some 
two years, and stirring up extraordinary 
rancor in the minds of some of the par- 
tisans of the several candidates, I had 
been threatened with violence, if I should 
attend the polls. I had notified my op- 
ponents that I should vote at a certain 
hour, on the appointed day, and placed 
these pistols in my pocket, by way of de- 
fence ; but nothing inconsistent with my 
freedom of political action in fact occurred. 
This was the only time in my life that I 
had carried such implements, which were 
then put aside in the drawer of a bureau, 
and I have never thought it worth while 
to take them since, except on the occasion 
now referred to. I had thus provided 
myself with them, on an entirely different 
occasion, and took them with me, on a 
sudden thought, as I was about to pro- 
ceed on my journey, more in the spirit of 



90 Old New Englaiid Traits, 

youthful bravado, than with any other mo- 
tive ; for the roads, at that period, were 
considered perfectly safe, by night as well 
as by day. As I have remarked, the 
thought of the shrewish and abandoned old 
woman, of her house and its evil compan- 
ions, occurred to me, as my horse slowly 
ascended the rising ground towards the 
plain. In a few minutes I was in the 
neighborhood of a habitation which I 
looked upon rather with detestation than 
any emotion of alarm ; when what was my 
astonishment to behold a man — the sound 
of the wheels of the chaise being doubtless 
audible at some distance in the clear, still 
night — come out of the gate in front of the 
house and station himself in the middle of 
the somewhat narrow highway. In fact, 
the stranger was within a rod of the vehi- 
cle, and must either be driven over or move 
out of the way. At this unexpected en- 
counter, I own that my heart, as the say- 
ing is, jumped into my mouth ; but I 



A Dangerous Resort, 91 

instantly drew and cocked my pistol, and 
the click probably disturbing the nerves 
of my proposed assailant, he turned aside 
without offering further molestation. In 
a few minutes, the lamps of the mail-stage, 
as it turned Beverly Corner on its way 
eastward, were a grateful spectacle, and 
my onward journey was pursued without 
other adventure. The driver of that stage 
afterwards informed me, that the trunks 
strapped to the rear of their coaches had 
more than once been cut off in that very 
neighborhood, and that on one occasion 
beams had been placed in the road so that 
the carriage would have been overturned, 
unless they had been discovered in time, 
and doubtless had been so placed for pur- 
poses of robbery. I inquired, why inves- 
tigation did not take place on the spot; 
but the reply was, that the passengers 
were in haste to get on, were unarmed, 
and perhaps timid, and preferred to remove 
the obstacles and proceed upon their way. 



92 Old New England Traits, 

The contrast, however, is striking, be- 
tween the habit of a farmer to leave his 
door unfastened at night and the machi- 
nations of rogues not a quarter of a mile 
distant, who could be guilty of such crimes. 
I believe, however, that the existence of 
such a nest of villains was quite excep- 
tional at that period, and unknown to the 
farmer, and that his sense of safety, with- 
out the most ordinary means of protection 
to his premises, was at that time the rule. 
The reader may draw what conclusions he 
pleases from the facts of my own personal 
narrative. 

I have remarked that politics, never 
stagnant in our ancient communities, at 
the period of my story, oftentimes grew 
extremely warm, and then every leading 
citizen took his personal part. Nor is it 
strange that the survivors of those who 
had borne their share in the Revolutionary 
War, who had the traditions, at least, of 
their fathers who served with the New 



Former Public Spirit, 93 

England troops, and followed the gallant 
and generous Wolfe up the formidable 
heights of Abraham, and after the victori- 
ous field which cost that true hero his life, 
stood triumphant, under the Red Cross 
banner, upon the subjugated ramparts of 
Quebec, should exhibit marked peculiar- 
ities of character ; should hold fast to 
strong opinions ; and indeed should mani- 
fest that individuality and originality of 
thought and action which is scarcely wit- 
nessed in the promiscuous crowd of our 
own tamer times. Instead of that indiffer- 
ence, the bane of a republic, among the 
upper class, the result of accumulated 
wealth and luxurious habits, the chief men 
of both parties stood at the door of the 
Town Hall, on days of election, distribut- 
ing votes, and encouraging the timid and 
the doubtful, and their influence was effec- 
tively felt in the direction of public affairs, 
which now seem mostly to be left to the 
management of the least competent, and 



94 Old New England Traits, 

often the most ignorant, mercenary, and 
corrupt. I firmly believe that the equal, 
if not preeminent position long maintained 
by Massachusetts, among rivals vastly su- 
perior in territory and population, was ow- 
ing to the active interest formerly taken 
by her leading men of all professions and 
occupations in the politics of the day, and 
that thus the sources of political well be- 
ing were kept comparatively pure. At 
present, these men take their political 
opinions from the newspaper they read, and 
trouble themselves very little further about 
a matter in which their own stake, one 
would think, would rouse them to exertion, 
•from the promptings of enlightened self- 
interest, if not from the more generous 
emotions of public spirit. 

On one occasion, when some eager dis- 
pute had arisen, as to which of the two 
parties actually preponderated, for the bal- 
ance sometimes wavered from one side to 
the other, it was determined to poll the 



A Hesitating Politician. 95 

town ; that is, to assemble all citizens en- 
titled to vote in the Town Hall, to divide 
them personally according to their several 
politics and by actual count to ascertain 
which was the strongest in point of num- 
bers. I happened to be present, as a boy 
who heard poHtical questions discussed 
with animation at home, and was curious 
to witness the scene, which was one really 
of the intensest interest. The selectmen 
occupied their tribune, at the head of the 
Hall, and the meeting was presided over 
by their chairman, a man of imposing 
height and general personal development, 
with flowing white locks, who commanded 
the respect of all parties. His father had 
been a soldier of Wolfe, and he and his as- 
sociates were on the Federal side. When 
the parties were arranged for the enumer- 
ation, one worthy individual, who kept the 
principal tavern of the town, stood hesi- 
tating, at the end of the hall, between the 
two files ; for, in fact, both parties of ne- 



96 Old New E7tgland Traits, 

cessity made use of his house, by turns, in 
commemoration of some pubhc event, or 
for festive purposes, which, to tell the 
truth, were frequently coming round ; for 
the liquor was both better and cheaper 
than in these degenerate days. I shall 
never forget the start which the sonorous 
voice of the chairman gave me, as he 
bawled out, — *" None of that, Jenkins ; we 
can't have any shirking here ; you must 
take one side or the other," — and he did, 
amidst the tumultuous laughter with which 
the Hall resounded. The contest was a 
good-natured one, and I have no doubt 
which party proved victorious, considering 
that the prevailing sentiment of the town 
was pretty well evidenced by the political 
leanings of the Board ; but at this late day 
it is of little consequence to authenticate 
the fact. 

The father of the sturdy chairman had 
set up the tavern, after returning from the 
expedition to Quebec, which he called the 



A Host and Gtcest. 97 

Wolfe House, in memory of his com- 
mander, General James Wolfe, who is pre- 
sented in such a pleasing light in Thack- 
eray's " Virginians," and, as a noble-minded 
man and true hero, deserved all which could 
be said in his praise. In after days, and I 
believe it is still there, the sign was sus- 
pended in front of the hotel, which took 
the place of that destroyed by the " Great 
Fire." The brave general wore his red 
coat and cocked hat, all through the War 
of the Revolution and that of 181 2-14, 
without molestation from colonial rebels, 
or Yankees fighting against the mother 
country, by land and by sea. The tavern 
was kept for a long time by a shrewd and 
active host, who had a keen eye to the 
main chance. Among his dinner guests 
were farmers who attended market, and 
others, content to take their meals at half 
price, after the chief company had finished 
that repast. Of these was one Major 
Muncheon, somewhat celebrated for his 
7 



98 Old New England Traits, 

remarkable powers of making away with 
whatever the table furnished. One day, 
Wilkins, the host, who was addicted to a 
slightly nasal intonation, addressed him, 
when he had just risen from his seat, — 
" Major, I can't dine you any more for 
twenty-five cents." " Why not } " asked 
the well-satisfied trencherman. "I tell 
you. Major," said his host, "the very veg- 
etables you've eaten cost two and three 
pence " (37I cents), " saying nothing of the 
meat and pies." " Pho ! Wilkins," remon- 
strated the farmer, " it's only the second 
table." " Second table ! " replied the host ; 
"why. Major, if you had sat down to the 
first table, there wouldn't have been no 
second." 

But if parties in those times were often 
hotly opposed, there was one occasion, 
every year, when a broader sentiment of 
patriotism warmed the hearts of all in the 
fellowship of a common cause. The An- 
niversary of Independence was duly com- 



A Remarkable Discourse, 99 

memorated by appropriate exercises for 
considerably more than half a century in 
our spirited town, and with a general loos- 
ening of party ties on the occasion, until 
the War of 1812, when the parties con- 
ducted separate celebrations, though the 
orators were always only too apt to tighten 
them again by untimely political allusions, 
in the narrower sense of the phrase.-^ 

On one of these anniversaries, the orator 
expectant we will call Mr. Moses, a member 
of the Bar, who had already acquired dis- 

1 Of all these productions I have seldom seen one 
equal to the printed sermon preached by Rev. Mr. Mur- 
ray, of our Old South Church, upon the Proclamation 
of Peace ; * for its array of various interesting informa- 
tion upon the condition and prospects of the country, 
and for soundly patriotic views, enforced with fervid 
and striking eloquence. In one respect, it could 
scarcely be surpassed. We have heard of the protracted 
discourses of the old Puritan divines, in both countries 
with which most of us claim origin, and like them Mr. 
Murray's sermon must have consumed at least two hours 
and a half in the delivery. He was educated at Edin- 
burgh and was no doubt a native of Scotland, 

* 1783. 



lOO Old New England Traits, 

tinction and was afterwards a leader in his 
profession, well known in the county of 
Essex. It was in reference to this gentle- 
man, that an ambitious colored person of 
that day instructed the shoemaker he em- 
ployed, that he wanted " his boots to have 
as much creak in them as Squire Moses's." 
On the day before the services were to take 
place, the orator repaired to the meeting- 
house appointed for the purpose, in order 
to rehearse his performance, and having 
mounted the stairs to the pulpit by a back- 
entrance, and probably wearing boots, at 
this time, of less distinctive resonance, did 
not attract the attention of an old wo- 
man who was on her knees scrubbing the 
broad aisle. The speaker had a melodious 
and ringing voice, and began, I suppose, — 
" Friends and fellow-countrymen ! " *' Oh, 
lud-a-mercy ! " cried the ancient female on 
the floor, starting to her feet, with uplifted 
hands. The occupant of the pulpit was 
a very polite person. "Oh, don't be 



''Moses is come!'' loi 

alarmed, madam," cried he; "it's only 
Moses." " Moses ! " screamed the woman 
— " Moses is come ! Moses is come ! " and 
not much to the credit of a piety which 
ought to have felt so highly favored by a 
vision of the great prophet, rushed from 
the church into the street in an agony 
of terror, spreading consternation in the 
neighborhood by her outcries, until the 
mystery was speedily cleared up. 



CHAPTER V. 

I KNOW there are those who will kindly 
regard these reminiscences of things, tri- 
fling, it may be, in themselves, but afford- 
ing a glimpse of manners perhaps already 
forgotten by most or all of those who were 
formerly more or less conversant with 
them, and which may prove of some in- 
terest in the future. We had spent our 
Thanksgiving at home, in the year i8 — , 
but went all together to the farm of our 
uncle Richard, who was of the Episcopal 
Church, for the celebration of Christmas ; 
for many of his persuasion, at that time, 
regarded " Thanksgiving " pretty much as 
the Highlander, in Scott's novel, did "ta 
little government Sunday, tat tey call ta 
Fast." He was a well-to-do farmer, at a 
place within easy reach of the tawn in 
which we lived, and where very few were at 



The Way they once failed, 103 

all rich, even according to the former mod- 
erate standard of wealth, and most people 
were poor, or at least depended on their 
daily labor for their daily bread. Those 
were very hard times following upon the 
war ; and that had followed fast upon the 
Great Fire, which reduced to ruin almost 
the entire central business part of the town. 
Our family had suffered private losses, too, 
by a swindling failure on an extensive 
scale, — a rare incident in those days;^ 
and again by the embargo and the war, 
most of my mother's limited means having 
been invested in one vessel after another, 
employed in the coasting trade, and this 
source of income at length stopped al- 

1 When a trader failed, as was rarely the case at that 
primitive period, his sign was taken down at night, to 
the wonder of the public in the morning, and he re- 
mained fast locked from the sheriff, or too inquisitive 
callers, in his house, until the disposition of his creditors 
became known, — dependent upon their confidence in his 
good intentions, or their sympathy with his unexpected 
misfortunes. 



I04 Old New England Traits, 

together. Still, people bore up bravely 
against these misfortunes, and showed quite 
as much spirit and hardihood as in these 
latter times, and got along decently, after 
a fashion. To be sure, the proclamation 
of Peace, a few years before, had revived 
all hearts ; though I heard of a washer- 
woman engaged in her avocation, while 
the bells were ringing, who, on learning 
the cause of jubilation, peevishly exclaimed, 
— " Peace ! peace ! what's peace, when 
there's no water ? " ^ Our Thanksgiving 

1 An anecdote quite parallel to this is to be found in 
the now late lamented Dean Ramsay's " Reminiscences." 
He relates, as a specimen of the cool Scottish matter-of- 
fact view of things, the following communication of a 
correspondent : — 

" The back windows of the house where he was brought 
up looked upon the Greyfriars' Church that was burned 
down. On the Sunday morning in which that event took 
place, as they were all preparing to go to church, the 
flames began to burst forth ; the young people screamed 
from the back part of the house, ' A fire ! a fire ! ' and all 
was in a state of confusion and alarm. The housemaid 
was not at home, it being her turn for the Sunday ' out.' 



Xkanksgivijtg Time. 105 

had been a cheerful one, though colored, as 
such anniversaries are likely to be, with 
recollections of the absent, or the dead ; 
for the memory of my father was always 
present to my mother, then and during a 
long widowhood of almost half a century, 
and my older brothers were at sea. My 
mother was an excellent housekeeper, and 
we had plenty of the usual belongings of 
the festival, so eagerly looked forward to 
by the young, and something to bestow 
upon others not so well supplied. It was 
the practice of some of this class to knock 
at the doors of those thought to be better 
off, on the evening before, begging " some- 
thing for Thanksgiving ; " and, by way of 

Kitty, the cook, was taking her place, and performing 
her duties. The old woman was always very particular 
on the subject of her responsibility on such occasions, 
and came panting and hobbling up stairs from the lower 
regions, and exclaimed, ' Oh what is't, what is't ? ' * O, 
Kitty, look here, the Grey friars' Church is on fire ! ' 'Is 
that a'. Miss ? What a fright ye geed me ! I thought ye 
said the parlor fire was out.' " 



io6 Old New E^tgland Traits, 

a joke, the children of comfortable neigh- 
bors and friends would often array them- 
selves in cast-off bizarre habiliments, and 
come in bands of three or four to the 
houses of those whom they knew, prefer- 
ring the same request. Ordinarily, the 
disguise was readily detected. Some- 
times the little mimics would come in, 
and keep up the show and the fun for 
a while ; but for the most part their cour- 
age failed them at the threshold, and they 
skurried away, shouting for glee, almost 
before they got any answer to their mock 
petitions. It was a queer fancy, thus to 
simulate poverty ; but kings have some- 
times done so. Did not James of Scotland 
find amusement in roaming through a 
portion of his domain, as a " gaberlunzie- 
man } " Yes — and even composed a fa- 
mous ballad to celebrate his exploits in 
this humble way. In the evening, we had 
a lively company, regaled with nuts, apples, 
and cider ; and my grandmother, who in- 



Presbyterians and Episcopalians, 107 

dulged in the old-fashioned practice, that 
is for females, of smoking a pipe, sat in the 
chimney-corner, where a genial wood-fire 
was brightly blazing, for coal was then a 
thing unknown in family consumption, 
duly furnished with the implement, and 
sometimes called out to us, — " A-done, 
children, a-done," when in anywise an- 
noyed by us, and occasionally would sing 
us an old song, of which I remember 
only " Robert Kid " and " A galliant ship, 
launched off the stocks, from Old England 
she came," etc. ; and, often when a storm 
was raging without, repeating to us the 
rhymes, — 

" How little do " (pronounced doe) "we think, or know, 
What the poor sailors undergo." 

But we had a livelier time at Uncle 
Richard's ; for there were more of us and 
merrier. Of course, those of the household 
who could be spared from domestic duties 
had attended service in the morning, and 
some of us from the town had also ap- 



io8 Old New England Traits, 

peared at church ; for though our branch 
of the family were now Presbyterians, we 
remembered that our common ancestor 
and the company who came over with him, 
a couple of centuries and more before that 
time, were of the Church of England, only 
protesting against the abuses which had 
crept into it ; and Uncle Richard carefully 
preserved, with the genealogy of the fam- 
ily on this side the water, the Orders in 
Council, prescribing for the passengers, by 
the " Mary and John," of which my ances- 
tor was one, then lying in the Thames, in 
the year 1633, amongst other regulations, 
the daily service to be observed on board, 
according to the ordinances of the Prayer 
Book. 

No doubt the dinner was all which the 
domestic celebration of the festival im- 
ports, for the farm was well stocked with 
every description of creature, and with 
most other things needful for the purpose ; 
but I may be excused if I remember none 



A Good Time at Hay-making, 109 

of the particulars, now that so many years 
have intervened. I know that Uncle Rich- 
ard always prided himself upon his excel- 
lent cider, and there is little question that 
there was a due allowance of spirits, which 
most persons of fair means kept, in those 
days, in decanters openly ranged upon the 
parlor sideboard. Indeed, about the same 
period, while I was a student at a famous 
Academy not many miles distant from our 
own home, the English teacher, an ortho- 
dox clergyman of high repute, who cul- 
tivated a few acres of land at the place 
where he lived on the outskirts of the town, 
invited a few of the pupils, myself in the 
number, to assist him in making hay, one 
play-afternoon. The boys had a good 
frolic, and, after work was ended, our mas- 
ter treated us to milk-punch, a highly 
agreeable, but rather exhilarating bever- 
age. Our uncle's house was of the old- 
fashioned New England description, pleas- 
antly facing the south, with a high-peaked 



no Old New England Traits, 

roof, which descended, in the opposite 
quarter, to not much more than a man's 
stature from the ground. In front was a 
spacious green yard, leading on one side 
to the garden for vegetables and trees of 
the choicer kinds of fruit, and sprinkled 
here and there with bunches of gay flow- 
ers.; and at the entrance gate by the road 
two magnificent elms, of an age and height 
which denoted that they must have given 
shade to several past generations from the 
summer heat, flung out drooping branches 
which extended a very great distance from 
the parent trunks. After dinner, our host 
entertained us with a narrative of his re- 
cent visit to the capital town of Boston, 
to testify, in company with a form'er neigh- 
bor, now resident there, in behalf of his 
hired man, Jasper Towne, of English birth, 
who having, duly and at a long term be- 
forehand, declared his intention, in proper 
form, was at length, after a continuous 
residence of fourteen years in the United 



Naturalization Proceedings, iii 

States, admitted by the Federal Court to 
all the rights and privileges which free citi- 
zenship could confer upon him. The scene 
in court my uncle thought peculiarly sol- 
emn and impressive. The candidate for 
the franchise was strictly questioned by 
the presiding justice, in open court, with 
regard to his origin and his past life. The 
witnesses were subjected to a similar scru- 
tiny as to his character and habits, and 
their judgment of his fitness for the re- 
sponsible position and the new duties he 
was about to assume. When this part of 
the transaction was completed, the oaths 
of renunciation of allegiance to every for- 
eign power, prince, or potentate whatso- 
ever, and the oath to support the Consti- 
tution of the United States were adminis- 
tered to him by the clerk in a manner to 
fix it in his mind that it was a very serious 
business, indeed, in which he had just been 
engaged. Thereupon, the judge addressed 
him in language of congratulation and 



112 Old New England Traits, 

counsel, and our newly-made fellow-coun- 
tryman respectfully departed from the tri- 
bunal, conscious that he had attained no 
mean privilege and had secured a safe- 
guard, like that, by the declaration of which 
the Apostle of the Gentiles stayed the up- 
lifted hands of his persecutors, and caused 
them to tremble at the thought of misuse 
or degradation inflicted upon a Roman citi- 
zen. Now, I believe, whatever is left of the 
ceremony upon such occasions is slurred 
over in a clerk's office, or the part per- 
formed in court scarcely attracts the at- 
tention of the magistrate upon the bench. 
The moral of this change of practice may 
be left to the reflection of the judicious 
reader. But it was something then to be, 
or to be made an American citizen. 

Not long before this, there had been an 
earthquake, which, though of brief duration, 
had caused no Httle alarm, — a terrific 
sound always, however slight the shock, — 
and in this instance makino: houses tremble 



The Cause of Earthquakes, 1 1 3 

and shaking down various articles from 
their places of deposit. In the early days 
of the colony, these phenomena were not 
uncommon, and are said to have been of no 
little power in this part of New England. 
Uncle Richard described the recent one 
as rumbling under the frozen ground lead- 
ing to his barns, as if a line of heavily- 
loaded wagons had rolled over it. Being 
something of a philosopher, and better edu- 
cated than usual at the time, he explained 
the cause of such physical occurrences to 
us young ones, 

" The fact is," he said, " the water in 
certain parts of the earth becomes in- 
tensely heated and lets off a quantity of 
steam of amazing expansive power. It is 
like a tea-kettle, which if you shut the noz- 
zle tight, may either throw off the lid with 
great force, or the kettle itself bursts with 
the strain upon it So the steam, under 
the earth, heated by central fires, and gain- 
ing immense volume and power, seeks the 
S 



1 1 4 Old New Engla7td Traits. 

hollows in its neighborhood, and rushes 
into them with a force which produces the 
concussion and the rumbling sound ; and 
the shaking of the surface which we per- 
ceive is really like the commotion in the 
tea-kettle and the trembling of the vessel 
when the steam has no vent. It is an 
awful thought that we thus live over the 
action of these subterranean fires ; but they 
are in the control of the Almighty, and all 
we have to do is to submit to God's will 
and merciful providence." 

St. Paul's Church, of which Uncle Rich- 
ard was a vestryman, owed its origin to 
the separation of certain persons from the 
Congregational mode of worship, and the 
formation of a society for the resumption 
of the Protestant Episcopal pattern, as long 
ago as the year 1712. Their place of wor- j 
ship they named Queen Anne's Chapel,^ " 

1 It was, I believe, the oldest Episcopal Church in 
Massachusetts, with the exception of King's Chapel, 
in Boston, a small wooden structure, which stood upon 



Queen Annes ChapeL 115 

in honor of the sovereign "at home," the 
last of the direct Stuart line, whose royal 
person, it is said, having grown too un- 
wieldy to permit horseback exercise, she 
was in the habit of following the hunt, 
of which she was passionately fond, driv- 
ing herself, helter-skelter, in a one-horse 
chaise. She has the credit of having be- 
stowed some endowment upon the Chapel, 
and the Bishop of London presented it 
with a bell ; which, if all accounts be true, 
still hangs in the steeple of a congrega- 
tional meeting-house within the precinct 
of the "Plains," where the Chapel once 
stood. For that edifice, probably not hav- 
ing been very substantially built, and being 
situated on a barren tract of land, after- 
wards known as " Grasshopper Plains," 
and, for the convenience of the scattered 
parishioners, placed at a distance from every 
one of them, and hence subject to various 

the place where the stone edifice of that name is now 
situated. 



ii6 Old New England Traits, 

causes of dilapidation, especially when St. 
Paul's, within the town, was in process of 
construction, at length fell to ruin ; and the 
bell was carried privately away — so runs 
the tale — and was long buried in the 
ground, but has now for many years sum- 
moned the people to a style of worship 
which would have appealed in vain to the 
good Bishop of London for any such dona- 
tion. It may be supposed that it could 
not be identified, after its interment, and 
perhaps the obliteration, naturally or other- 
wise, of its peculiar marks ; or the succes- 
sors of Queen Anne's at St. Paul's, built 
about thirty years after the former, would 
have reclaimed their property. 

The motives of those who thus revived 
the relation of their ancestors with the 
Established Church were not altogether 
pious ; but the fact incontestibly proves, 
that after nearly a century of separation 
from that establishment, the objections to 
it, in the minds of many of the children 



Reasons for Change, 117 

of the colonists, were by no means insur- 
mountable. Indeed, it was about a ques- 
tion of parish taxation that they differed 
with their co-religionists. The place se- 
lected for the meeting-house was so far 
distant from the homes of many of the 
parish, that they could not attend with- 
out great inconvenience, and yet they were 
required to pay the parish rates for the 
support of the minister. They remon- 
strated and appealed in vain to the civil 
authorities in the colony and to those in 
England, for relief; for the law was clearly 
against them, unless they chose to conform 
to the doctrines and discipline of the Es- 
tablished Church. Finding nothing in the 
Thirty-nine Articles inconsistent with the 
faith they professed, they easily reconciled 
themselves to the ceremonies, and thus 
succeeded in their object of removing from 
their shoulders an involuntary burden. 

As may be imagined, at first and for 
years afterwards, they remained but " a 



1 1 8 Old New England Trails, 

feeble folk," regarded with suspicion and 
dislike by the more narrow-minded of their 
contemporaries, though the days were long 
gone by, when an Episcopalian, especially 
if suspected of a leaning towards Popery, 
was set in the pillory or the stocks. The 
Church, however, had been long flourish- 
ing, in my youth, and I was always partic- 
ularly impressed when I attended service 
there, as I always did on Christmas Day, 
with the organ, an instrument utterly un- 
known in our other places of public wor- 
ship, and with the comfort diffused by the 
large Russian stove which projected from a 
corner of the building ; while we, for long 
years afterwards, shivered in our meeting- 
houses of a cold Sunday. To be sure, the 
younger children carried their mothers' 
hand-stoves, constructed of tin in a frame 
of wood and pierced with holes in the top, 
to let out such heat as could be communi- 
cated by a small pan of coals covered with 
ashes. But for the male part of the con- 



A Short Discourse, 119 

gregation, who despised such a luxury, it 
was almost impossible to avoid occasionally- 
striking the benumbed feet together, and 
sometimes the clatter was almost as consid- 
erable, as in letting down the seats after 
the long prayer, especially if that proved 
to be a very protracted exercise. But I 
have known young ladies so indifferent to 
the severity of the weather, as to attend 
meeting, on very cold days of winter, with 
bare arms. What would delicate ladies, 
who, wrapped in warm furs, listen to ser- 
vice in a heated church, think of such ex- 
posure now ? On one particular occasion, 
however, our minister announced the text, 
— " Who can stand before His cold ? " and 
closed the services with the usual blessing, 
a little to the dissatisfaction, I think, of the 
more staid members of the congregation, 
who having come through cold and snow, 
or a furious wintry storm, it might be, to 
hear a sermon, were not altogether con- 
tented to miss the expected edification, or 



I20 Old New England Traits, 

perhaps the opportunity of criticising the 
discourse. Indeed, I know not what my 
respected great grandsire, an elder of the 
church in his day, would have said to such 
defection from spiritual needs towards in- 
dulgence in carnal comfort. For it is said, 
that when some less searching and thor- 
ough-going preacher of the word exchanged 
with our minister, or casually officiated for 
him, the old gentleman tottered out of the 
meeting-house, leaning on his staff, and 
with elevated eyebrows muttered pretty 
audibly to those near him, — " P^as in a 
bladder — thorns under a pot — no food 
to-day ! " And however it might be with 
many of his neighbors, not the minutest 
particle of the quality of original Puritanism 
had been shaken out of his system by the 
changes of the times. The family tradition 
is, that before the sunset of Saturday every- 
thing necessary for the support of nature 
upon the Sabbath was cooked and in readi- 
ness. Whether he allowed the accustomed 



Strict Family Discipline, 121 

beans and rye and Indian bread to remain 
in the oven subject to the working heat, 
over Saturday night, I am not able to cer- 
tify. But in the intervals of public worship 
on Sunday, — a term, bv the way, which he 
would have scorned to employ, — the fam- 
ily was assembled and ranged around the 
walls of the room, and the reading of Scrip- 
ture, or of some well-worn book of devo- 
tion, was proceeded with, while the head of 
the family sat in the centre, with a stick in 
his hand long enough to reach the head 
and shoulders of any inattentive or unquiet 
child. 



CHAPTER VI. 

An aged friend, years ago deceased, who 
had seen much of the world, once observed 
to me, that he had never seen a more 
" scrupulous people," to use his expression, 
than our Presbyterian congregation. The 
clergy of the town were always distin- 
guished, at a period when to be a clergy- 
man was to be much more an object of 
reverence than in these latter days, and 
when a boy in the street would scarcely 
venture to pass one, on the opposite side- 
walk, without pulling off his cap. But 
they set their people an excellent example, 
though they did not always escape the 
censure of the over " scrupulous." For 
instance, Mr. Murray, the accomplished 
scholar and divine to whom reference has 
already been made, was known to take no 
dinner in the interval of public worship, 



The Minister and Gossip. 123 

substituting for that repast a slice or two 
of bread and a few glasses of wine. Why- 
such a fact, when everybody drank more or 
less wine, or something stronger, every day 
of the week, should have alarmed the con- 
science of Miss Betty Timmins, a maiden 
lady of a certain age, it seems difficult to 
conjecture. Nevertheless, she made a sol- 
emn call, one day, upon her pastor, and 
with such apology as she could muster for 
impertinence — at length out with it : "I 
must tell you, reverend sir, they do say you 
drink." " Drink ! Miss Timmins," said Mr. 
Murray ; " to be sure I do, don't you } How 
can anybody live without drinking.?" and 
the discomfited spinster retreated. Mr. 
Murray had a fund of humor. The parson- 
age was close by the house of his parish- 
ioner, the sheriff, and the adjoining jail and 
whipping-post in the charge of that officer, 
and in the last illness of the minister the 
official was in the habit of taking him to a 
drive. Once, as he was getting into the 



124 ^^^ New England Trails, 

chaise, a friend passed by and he called 
out, " If you see any one inquiring for me, 
tell him the last you saw of me I was in 
the hands of the sheriff." But after his 
time, and at the period of which I am writ- 
ing, we had no less than three EngUsh 
ministers settled in the town, all educated 
upon the foundation of the celebrated 
Countess of Huntington. I recall, with 
vivid recollection, the figure of one of these 
worthies who called himself an " Indepen- 
dent," as he proceeded to meeting on a 
Sunday : his high cocked hat, his flowing, 
black curled locks, — more in the cavalier 
than the Puritan fashion ; his long blue 
cloak over his clerical gown, his bands, his 
knee-breeches, — objected to by a fastidious 
young lady, as *' short pantaloons," — his 
square shoe-buckles, and his ponderous 
cane. His person was somewhat short 
and thick, whence " lewd fellows of the 
baser sort " sometimes irreverently called 
him the " The Jack of Clubs." But he was 



Clerical Wit. 125 

a really good man, with the most power- 
ful voice I remember to have heard, and 
he preached, always an unwritten sermon, 
but with heads set down, anything but 
smooth things to his numerous congrega- 
tion. Towards the close of his life he used 
to remark, that when he first came to this 
country, the topic of sermons was " Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified ; now it was 
nothing but niggers and rum." He was 
good at retort. Early one Monday morn- 
ing he was going home from the market, 
with some mackerel which he had j ust pur- 
chased strung upon his cane. " Mr. Mil- 
ton," said some passer-by, " them mackerel 
was caught Sunday." " Well," was the re- 
ply, " that ain't the fishes' fault." 

One burden of this worthy minister's 
Sunday prayer, during the sessions of Con- 
gress and of the State legislature, was, 
*' Counsel our councillors, and teach our 
senators wisdom." By many of the stronger 
faith of an elder day, his fervent supplica- 



126 Old New England Traits, 

tions were believed to exercise a specific 
influence upon the atmosphere, particularly 
in bringing needed rain at a dry time. I 
have often heard it said, after the drought 
had continued a good while, — " Well, Mil- 
ton has prayed for rain and now we shall 
have it." This reminds me of an anecdote 
appropriate to the topic, in that very enter- 
taining book, Dean Ramsay's " Reminis- 
cences of Scottish Life and Character." 
At one time when the crops were much 
laid by continuous rains, and wind was 
earnestly desired in order to restore them 
to a condition fit for the sickle, — "A min- 
ister," he says, "in his Sabbath services 
expressed their wants in prayer, as follows : 
* O Lord, we pray thee to send us wind, no 
a rantin' tantin,' tearin* wind, but a noohin', 
(noughin T) soughin', winnin' wind.* " In 
like manner, I have heard of a prayer 
preferred by a somewhat simple New Eng- 
lander, who was overheard offering his pe- 
tition behind a clump of bushes in a field : 



An Amazing Contrast, 127 

" O Lord, I want a new coat — good cloth 
— none of your coarse, flimsy, slimsy, 
sleazy kind of stuff, but a good piece of 
thick, warm, comfortable broadcloth — such 
as Bill Hale wears." 

It must be admitted that the reverend 
person was rather rough in manner ; but 
he had a truly kind heart. Like John 
Wesley, he was unfortunate in his domestic 
relations ; a circumstance which doubtless 
tended somewhat to lessen the amiability 
of an originally good disposition. But, not- 
withstanding his various trials and we fear 
conflicts at home, no one questioned his 
piety. Indeed, one well acquainted with his 
character and experiences, when his death 
was announced, at once exclaimed, — " What 
a change ! From pitching skillets, to hand- 
ling harps ! " There could be no greater 
contrast than in the person and character 
of our long and well-beloved Presbyterian 
minister, graceful in person, courteous and 
aflable in demeanor, accomplished in an- 



128 Old New England Traits, 

cient learning and in that portion of Eng- 
lish literature which is styled classical ; a 
devoted and affectionate pastor, a most able 
and persuasive preacher ; of whom Presi- 
dent Dvvight, of Yale, is reported to have 
said, that there had been scarcely such 
a writer of pure English since Addison. 
With the exception of some failure of phys- 
ical powers, towards the close of his life, he 
retained these admirable characteristics and 
accomplishments to the end of his more 
than ninety years. He always preached in 
gown and bands, with black gloves upon 
his hands, his nether limbs encased in 
small-clothes and silk stockings, until in 
later life he adopted the prevailing mode. 
We always knew when he intended to 
preach, because through several interven- 
ing yards and gardens we could see from 
our house the light in his study, at a dis- 
tance, of a Saturday night. His morning 
discourses were usually admirable exposi- 
tions of Scripture delivered without notes ; 



Studies and Exercises 129 

his afternoon sermons were written exer- 
cises, and we so depended upon both, that 
it was a disappointment when we discov- 
ered that he was to exchange, by the ab- 
sence of the usual Hght. He would descend 
from the contemplation of the highest 
themes, which address themselves to human 
reason and imagination, and from the relax- 
ation of reading "Tully," or Horace, or 
Pope, who was a special favorite with him, 
to the preparation of his fire-wood for do- 
mestic use, and doubtless this accustomed 
saw-horse practice tended very much to the 
promotion and continuance both of his bod- 
ily and mental health. In my childhood, he 
taught me and other, I fear, reluctant pupils 
all we were capable of learning of the West- 
minster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, 
contained, at that time, in a small but mis- 
cellaneous volume called the Primer. He 
was a great lover of the writings of Cow- 
per, which name, in the English manner, 
he always pronounced Cooper, and of the 
9 



130 Old New England Traits, 

Psalms and Hymns and the lyrical pro- 
ductions, in general, of Dr. Watts ; and long 
after I had grown up, he pointed out to me 
a verse in one of those Hymns, remarking 
upon a point which I do not remember to 
have seen noticed elsewhere, that it pre- 
sented the finest specimen of alliteration 
in the language, as follows : — 

** How vain are all things here below. 
How false and yet how fair ! 
Each pleasure hath its poison too, 
And every sweet a snare." 

The eventual condition and standing of 
our Episcopal Church may be inferred from 
the fact, that its Rector, in early times, was 
chosen Bishop of the diocese, a dignity 
which he long piously and humbly enjoyed. 
Along the beautiful street on which St. 
Paul's stood, and in its immediate neigh- 
borhood, were some of the more elegant 
residences of the town, and an air of supe- 
rior gentility seemed to pervade the pre- 
cinct, so that some caviller saw fit to call 



A Liberal ''Exchanger 131 

it St. James's, in allusion to the Christian 
name of the excellent Rector who suc- 
ceeded the venerable Bishop. He was, in- 
deed, a most devoted churchman, looking 
upon all persons outside of his communion 
as sheep wandering from the fold, and used 
to say, that he considered the whole town 
as really belonging to his parish. He was 
a person very highly esteemed for his piety 
and sincerity, and as evidence of this re- 
pute, and of liberality on both sides, he 
preached, by invitation, and read the ser- 
vice in the Presbyterian meeting-house, on 
one occasion, at least, when our minister 
was absent and his own pulpit was sup- 
plied. We were then under another pas- 
tor ; but some years before this mani- 
festation of truly Christian toleration a 
controversy arose between the Rector and 
our Presbyterian clergyman, in regard to 
the obligatory observance of Christmas. 
It was conducted in the newspaper of the 
town, then published only on two days of 



132 Old New England Traits. 

the week, and to the multitude of readers 
appeared more spirited than edifying, as 
is the case with most polemical disputes. 
The worthy Episcopal Doctor had asserted 
on Christmas Day, that the observance of 
that festival was of universal Christian ob- 
ligation. The Presbyterian Doctor took up 
the cudgels to demonstrate, that, although 
it was proper and reasonable enough to 
keep the day, as a matter of religious edi- 
fication, like a lecture-day, for example, by 
those who saw fit to do so, yet there was 
no authority, in this respect, binding upon 
the consciences of those who chose to 
disregard it. Both of the disputants were 
acknowledged gentlemen and scholars ; but 
after much argument and learning wasted 
upon the subject, it is to be feared that the 
controversy, through the medium of a pub- 
lic journal, between two such highly re- 
spected controversialists, on a topic of 
religious practice, only gave too much oc- 
casion to the scoffer. Indeed, Johnnie Fa- 



A Refined Circle, 133 

vor, the Episcopal sexton's helper, one of 
those persons, reputed half-witted, who 
sometimes make very apposite remarks, 
observed, — '* Well — Christmas here, or 
Christmas there, I'm not so narrer-con- 
tracted as to like to see the surplices of 
two such good men as your Doctor and 
my Doctor draggled in the dirt." 

Certainly, a tone of unusual refinement 
pervaded the better educated class of the 
community in the old town, at the period 
of this relation, and not a little stateliness 
of manner was kept up by some of the 
older families. Indeed, I think they would 
compare very favorably in point of intelli- 
gence and manners, with persons of a 
similar class, as described by the great 
authorities heretofore referred to, and 
others, who have given us vivid pictures 
of social life in the Scottish capital. To be 
sure, the colonial days of distinct social 
rank had long gone by. But, half a gener- 
ation before, the town had been one of the 



134 ^^d New England Traits, 

most flourishing and wealthy in New Eng- 
land, and to the counting-houses of its prin- 
cipal merchants young men resorted, even 
from the capital of the State, to learn the 
art and practice of business. Those who 
filled the several learned professions were 
persons of the highest eminence in their 
several calhngs, — drawing pupils around 
them who afterwards, and on wider fields 
of action, attained great names and some 
of whom occupied the loftiest civil positions 
in the land. 

Among the students, for example, in the 
office of that great lawyer and judge. Chief 
Justice Parsons, while he practised- at the 
Bar, and who subsequently attained emi- 
nence, were John Quincy Adams, afterwards 
President of the United States, and Rufus 
King, afterwards Senator in Congress from 
the State of New York, and twice Minister 
Plenipotentiary to Great Britain ; and Rob- 
ert Treat Paine, so celebrated in his day, as 



A Mysterious Worshipper, 135 

an orator and poet.^ Of one of these eminent 
persons I heard a story, formerly, from a 
friend of very high character as a man and a 
lawyer, the late Hon. William Baylies, of 
West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It seems 
that while Mr. King, then a young man, was 
in the practice of his profession in Boston 
he was detained in attendance upon court 
at Plymouth, until late on Saturday even- 
ing. It was necessary for him to be at 
home seasonably on Monday morning, and 
accordingly he mounted his horse early on 
Sunday, the ordinary mode of travel, in 
those days, and proceeded leisurely on his 
way. It was summer time ; and in passing 
through the township of Hanover, in Plym- 
outh County, he approached a plain wooden 

1 The late Mr. Edward Everett is authority (with me) for 
the story, that on the occasion of the visit of Washington 
to New England, in 1789, Parsons was appointed to de- 
liver the address of welcome, on the part of the town, 
and said to his students, " Well, boys, I am to make this 
address. Now, go to work and write it, and I will deliver 
the best." He chose the one prepared by Adams. 



136 Old New England Traits, 

structure by the roadside, in which, as he 
could see by the assemblage within, the 
door and windows being open, that it was 
a time of religious service. Alighting, out 
of deference to the character of the day, he 
hitched his horse and quietly entered the 
building. It proved to be a Quaker meet- 
ting, and perfect silence prevailed. At 
length tiring of this state of things, Mr. 
King arose and began to address the as- 
sembly upon topics suitable to the day. 
He was an uncommonly handsome young 
man, and then and ever afterwards distin- 
guished for extraordinary powers of elo- 
quence. The Quakers listened with mute 
amazement and admiration to the discourse 
of some twenty minutes* duration, when 
the speaker slipped out, remounted, and 
proceeded on his journey. The incident 
was the occasion of great and mysterious 
interest, for a long time afterwards, in the 
quiet country neighborhood. No imagi- 
nation could conceive who the wonderful 



Mea7is of Instruction. 137 

speaker might be, and many insisted it 
must have been, indeed, '*an angel from 
heaven." Some years afterwards, at the 
session of a Constitutional Convention in 
Massachusetts, Mr. King rose to make a 
motion. He had no sooner begun, than 
a Quaker member started up from a back 
seat, and, carried away by the first glimpse 
at solution of the long-standing mystery, 
cried out, " That's the man that spoke in 
our meetin'." 

Provision for the instruction of youth was 
liberal, and not long previously the most 
famous, and I believe the longest estab- 
lished academy of the day, flourished in the 
immediate neighborhood, in all its glory. 
Of the school-books then in use, I cannot 
but think that one in particular, Murray's 
English Reader, was a better manual than 
any other which has since been produced. 
For it was mainly made up of extracts from 
the writings of the best authors, in the 
best age of English literature, and I can 



138 Old New E7igla7id Traits, 

answer that its lessons were calculated to 
make impressions on the youthful mind, 
never to be forgotten. But the prevalent 
idea, of late years, seems to have been to 
nationalize school-books, so as to narrow 
their teachings, and thus to make our future 
fellow-citizens partisans instead of men. 
But literature and learning are confined 
to no age or nation ; and meaning in no 
sense to say a word which could abate the 
ardor of manly patriotism in any bosom, it 
is certain that much is to be learned from 
the history of other people beside our own ; 
and I suppose there are standards of high 
intellectual attainment in the past, — in 
poetry and eloquence, and various ranges 
of thought and expression, — which never 
have been and are not likely to be sur- 
passed. The deluge of modern transitory 
literature had not then begun to flow. But, 
to say nothing of the " Scottish Chiefs," 
and " Thaddeus of Warsaw," over the pages 
of which, doubtless, millions of youthful 



Some of our Books, 139 

eyes have formerly shed copious tears, we 
had Miss Edgeworth's writings, those of 
Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, the novels of Char- 
lotte Smith, the Memoirs of Baron Trenck, 
and, perused a little stealthily. Peregrine 
Pickle and Roderick Random ; and in 
poetry Henry Kirke White and Montgom- 
ery were favorites ; nor am I ashamed to 
say, that Cottle's '' Alfred " was read aloud 
at our fireside of evenings, with an interest 
due to the story, perhaps, as much as to its 
poetical ability. Original American pro- 
ductions were few ; the importation of new 
works from abroad was not large, and the 
demand for reprints a good deal limited. 
But we had the well-known books of ster- 
ling value at command, and our publishers 
occasionally favored us with new editions. 
One of my early studies was Guthrie's 
Grammar of Geography, a ponderous vol- 
ume of English manufacture, which be- 
longed in our family ; and I was fascinated 
with Pope at almost as early an age as 



140 Old New England Traits, 

that in which he first " Hsped in numbers." 
I see, by the way, that Forster, in his Life 
of Dickens, quotes from a letter of Scott, in 
which he refers to the scarcity of books at 
Edinburgh in his time. 

In connection with this reference to our 
means of intellectual cultivation, I am re- 
minded of an incident illustrative of a fac- 
ulty commonly attributed to Yankees, that 
is New Englanders, though there is reason 
to believe that some other parts of the 
country are quite as liberally gifted with 
the qualities of " Yorkshire." It affords a 
striking instance of shrewdness on the one 
side, and of lamentable deficiency of it on 
the other. This was before the town had 
exchanged its original simpler mode of reg- 
ulating its municipal affairs for the form 
of a city government. On a certain occa- 
sion the School Committee became dissat- 
isfied with the master of one of the higher 
schools, after a brief trial of his qualities, 
and, as delicately as the subject permitted, 



A Shrewd Schoolmaster. 141 

requested him to resign his place. The 
master was not a native of the town, or of 
the " region round about," so that it was a 
mere question of quaUfications, real or 
otherwise, between himself and his em- 
ployers. He demurred, unless his salary 
were paid him for the unexpired consider- 
able part of the year for which he alleged 
himself to have been engaged ; but finally 
consented, if the chairman of the commit- 
tee would only furnish him with a certifi- 
cate of honorable discharge. The chair- 
man, at this easy rate of saving the town's 
money, wrote it, without suspicion of its 
effect. Thereupon, the master read it, put 
it into his pocket, and by virtue of the 
document, demanded payment of the sum 
in question. It was paid ; and the triumph- 
ant master forthwith proceeded — 

" To fresh woods and pastures new." 

The state of things, in regard to our 
reading resources, was before the modern 
facilities for gadding about existed ; and 



142 Old New England Traits, 

while those who find time lying heavy on 
their hands can now steam it a hundred 
miles to make a morning-call, journeying 
was then both more tedious and more 
expensive, seldom undertaken except as an 
affair of business, or with the deliberate 
purpose of a long-concerted visit ; and a 
good part of the day was consumed in 
travelling half that distance by public con- 
veyance. The consequence was, that peo- 
ple's pleasures, with their duties, laid 
mostly at home, or near at hand. Hence 
family and friendly ties were more closely 
drawn. The better feelings of our nature 
were, I think, deeper, than when scat- 
tered over a wide but thin social surface ; 
just as the water in a well is more con- 
centrated, than if diffused in the basin of 
a pond. To some extent, therefore, whole- 
somely isolated, besides the ordinary round 
of not very formal visiting parties, there 
were reading circles, for those who were 
prompted by intellectual yearnings, fre- 



Good Society, 143 

quented by young ladies and gentlemen, 
married or single, at which passages from 
the better class of books were read aloud 
by such of the male members as felt com- 
petent to the exercise, by turns. In fact, 
taking into view the intelligence, the in- 
expensive accomplishments, and the unaf- 
fected manners of the fairly educated among 
us, it has not fallen to the lot of most per- 
sons to meet with any society more really 
agreeable. St. James's, however, and the 
congregation of the successors of those 
who founded the First Church, who had at 
length become what was called " liberal," 
in contrast with the orthodoxy of the rest 
of the town, aspired to a higher degree 
of gentility and accomplishment than the 
commonalty ; and, in evidence that we 
were not bigoted, my mother would some- 
times allow me, when a boy, and desirous 
of some change, to attend service of an 
afternoon, at the latter place of public wor- 
ship with some friends of the family who 



144 ^^d New England Traits. 

waited upon its ministrations. Of the di- 
versions of the common people I particu- 
larly remember one under the curious name 
of a " Joppa Jine " (join) ; to which I allude 
from the oddity of its name, derived from 
a part of the town so called by the river- 
side, when several families of neighbors and 
friends contributed their respective quota 
of a common feast, and repaired to the 
island at the mouth of the river to enjoy 
a day of leisure and merriment. 

In a certain class, the ancient pronun- 
ciation of many English words was main- 
tained, doubtless brought by the ancestors 
of New England families from *' home," and 
transmitted to their descendants ; such as 
airth for earth, fairm for firm, sariain for 
certain, pint for point, ^wvy for envy, ax 
with the broad a for ask, housen for houses, 
his'n and her'n for his and hers, rare for 
rear ; as, for instance, the horse raves up ; 
and sounding the / in would. Common 
enough names, too, were clipped or con- 



1 



Old-fashioned Pronunciation. 145 

tracted in English fashion. Thus, the 
names of Norwood and Harwood became 
Norrod in sound and Harrod in spelHng ; 
and the name of Currier, whether with any 
reference or not to the French Cuh% for 
leather, was not long since uniformly pro- 
nounced Kiah, with the long I ; Thurlow 
was strangely transformed into Thiirrill ; 
and Pierpont, often formerly spelled Pier- 
point, with entire neglect of its derivation, 
was pronounced Pearpint, by old-fashioned 
people, the first syllable approximating to 
the original formation of pierre. 

In connection with this modification of 
language, I observe in a daily paper how 
much a worthy old lady puzzled her minis- 
ter, for a moment, by inquiring the mean- 
ing of "silver shiners for Diana," in the 
Bible ; but a good deacon, at an evening 
meeting in the chapel of their house of 
worship, in our town, sadly disturbed the 
gravity of the religious assembly, by read- 
ing it silver shins for Dinah ! 
10 



CHAPTER VII. 

I TRUST it will not be thought inappro- 
priate to the allusion already made to our 
reading circles, if I here insert a jeit d' es- 
prit, the production of one of the members, 
indicating a certain forwardness in the 
sphere of literary investigation, and afford- 
ing a plausible solution of a literary prob- 
lem, which had been so long shrouded in 
mystery, namely, the true narrative of " Old 
Grouse in the Gun-room." 

This is the name of the story to which 
Goldsmith alludes in his comedy, " She 
Stoops to Conquer." Mr. Hardcastle, the 
host of the occasion, in preparation for the 
dinner he is about to give his guests, 
charges his rustic servants that if he should 
say a good thing at the table, they are not 
to burst out laughing, as if they were a part 
of the company to be entertained. Dig- 



A Literary Hiatus supplied, 147 

gory, thereupon replies to his master, — 
"Then, ecod, your worship must not tell 
the story of * Ould Grouse in the Gun-room/ 
I can't help laughing at that — he ! he ! he ! 
— for the soul of me. We have laughed at 
that these twenty years — ha ! ha ! ha ! " 
Mr. Hardcastle admits, that this pet nar- 
rative of his may properly be considered 
an exceptional case. On the other hand, 
it has uniformly foiled the researches of 
critics and commentators to ascertain what 
this story really was which " Squire Hard- 
castle," in the exuberance of his own enjoy- 
ment of it, gave them the liberty to laugh 
at, if they liked. It has been generally sup- 
posed, indeed, that the story itself was, in 
fact, non-existent, and that the ingenious 
author of the play merely invented the title 
in order to show off the uncouth peculiar- 
ities which it was his object to display. 

Now, it so happens, that the means are 
not wanting for the solution of this mys- 
tery, and in illustration of the life of a 



148 Old New England Traits, 

writer and a man so interesting as Gold- 
smith, I am glad to be able to clear up 
the critical embarrassment. Years ago, the 
writer of this article fell by chance into 
the company of Miss Goldsmith, grand- 
niece of Mrs. Johnson, who was house- 
keeper of old Mr. Featherston, of County 
Kerry, Ireland. She knew the story in 
question very well, and it is gratifying to 
be able to verify the authenticity of the 
allusion of a great poet and writer in gen- 
eral, of whom Dr. Johnson has said, in 
those familiar words in his epitaph, that he 
touched nothing which he did not adorn, 
and whose character has been very much 
misunderstood, chiefly by reason of the 
misrepresentations of Boswell. This par- 
asite of Johnson, who has given us one of 
the most entertaining books of biography 
ever written, was jealous not only of Gold- 
smith's literary reputation, so far as it 
might rival that of his special idol, but also 
of the real hold which Goldsmith, because 



Goldsmith and Bosivell. 149 

of his simplicity as well as his genius, had 
upon the affections of the great moralist. 
While he was himself admitted to the high 
literary society which he frequented, on 
terms of sufferance chiefly, Boswell took 
every pains to disparage poor Goldsmith. 
The poet, whose writings possess a charm 
so seldom paralleled, it must be allowed, 
gave no little occasion for depreciation, by 
his want of firmness of character ; and Bos- 
well maliciously set forth all his singular- 
ities and weaknesses in the most ludicrous 
point of view. Whoever will take pains, 
however, to read his delightful " Life " by 
John Forster, will find the general impres- 
sions on the subject very materially cor- 
rected, and will see, that, if the hard-driven 
bard had many faults, he had also many 
virtues, which, as Lord Bacon remarks, is 
" the posy of the best characters." 

But to the veritable story of " Old Grouse 
in the Gun-room." It seems, according to 
the narrative of Mrs. Johnson, that the 



150 Old New England Traits, 

family of Mr. Featherston were seated at 
the tea-table, at the close of a chilly day, 
a bright fire blazing on the hearth, and the 
servants, as usual, being in attendance. 
On a sudden, a tremendous crash was 
heard in a distant part of the ancient man- 
sion, followed by a succession of wails of 
the most lugubrious and unearthly charac- 
ter, which reverberated through the echo- 
ing passage-ways of the house. Whatever 
the cause of the sounds might be, there 
was no doubt they were of the most horri- 
fying description. The family, consisting 
of the 'Squire, a maiden sister, and one or 
two younger persons, jumped from their 
seats in the utmost consternation, while 
Patrick and the rest of the domestics 
rushed from the room in a state of terror 
more easily to be conceived than described, 
and huddled together in the kitchen, as 
far as possible from the occasion of their 
fright. 

Imagine a lonely country-house, a quiet 



A Strange Alarm, 151 

and well-ordered family seated at their 
evening meal, after dark, of a somewhat 
gloomy day, the apartment imperfectly 
lighted by the glowing fire, and according 
to such conveniences for the purpose as 
old times ordinarily afforded ; the conversa- 
tion, perhaps, turning on such unexciting 
topics as the weather, past, present, and 
to come, or the thoughts reverting, it may 
be, to such mundane topics as the expected 
game of whist or backgammon, — and the 
scene suddenly broken in upon by the 
most startling and terrific sounds, which 
seemed to result from no intelligible cause, 
and for which it seemed impossible to ac- 
count by reference to any merely human 
agency. The young folks, after their first 
scream of terror, sat dumb, pale, and utterly 
helpless. 

" It's the Banshee ! " screamed Aunt 
Nelly, sinking back, in a faint, into her 
chair. 

" It's the devil, I believe," cried the 



152 Old New Eiigla7id Traits. 

'Squire, who, notwithstanding age and in- 
firmity, retained a good deal of that origi- 
nal pluck, which had formerly distinguished 
him as an officer in his Majesty's military 
service. " Yes, it is the devil, I verily be- 
lieve ; and there is no way but to send for 
the priest, to get him out of a house that 
never was troubled in this way before. 
Where are those sneaking curs } " as Pat- 
rick and the rest in a body peeped into the 
room through the door they had forgotten 
to shut in their flight, and too much fright- 
ened to stay quietly anywhere. " Patrick," 
called out the 'Squire, " go at once for 
Father O'Flaherty." 

At this moment, another preternatural 
yell, long-toned and of the most mournful 
cadence, burst upon their ears, and the dis- 
mayed servants fairly tumbled over each 
other and sprawled and scrambled through 
the passage, in their haste to get away. 
The 'Squire followed and ordered Patrick 
forthwith to mount Sorrel and hasten for 



A Great Fright. 153 

the priest, at the village, a mile or more 
away. 

" O Lord ! your worship," cried that 
valiant man-of-all-work, — though aided in 
the day-time by two or three assistants 
from the village, — " O Lord ! your wor- 
ship ! only ask me anything but that " — 
as, of course, on such occasions people are 
ready to do all but the very thing which 
the exigency demands, — " O Lord ! your 
worship's honor ! I couldn't for the world 
go round that corner of the house, to get 
to the stable ; but if Nancy here — now 
Nancy, darlint, I know you will, honey — 
if she'll only go with me, I'll run for his 
reverence as fast as my poor legs, that's 
all of a tremble, will carry me " — shrewdly 
reflecting, as did Nancy also, that the 
farther they left the house behind, they 
left the danger, too. This affair being 
hastily arranged, as the two ready mes- 
sengers proceeded towards the door, a 
quick step was heard upon the gravel, fol- 



154 Old New England Traits. 

lowed by an emphatic knock, and the em- 
bodied household fell back with renewed 
trepidation ; when fortunately who should 
it be but Father O'Flaherty himself, who 
found the 'Squire, his family, and servants 
all huddled together in the hall. 

" Good-evening to you, 'Squire," said he ; 
" and faix, what is the matter that you all 
look so pale ? The holy saints forbid that 
any ill luck has come to this house ! " 

Again, rang echoing through the open 
doors and empty rooms the same porten- 
tous sound, rendered none the less terrific 
that its tones were partly subdued by dis- 
tance. "Holy Father!" exclaimed the 
priest, crossing himself — "what is that? 
Has Satan dared to cross this blessed 
threshold ? " 

Upon this, half a dozen tongues began 
to relate the circumstances of terrors only 
too manifest ; but Mr, Featherston silenced 
them, and proposed to Father O'Flaherty 
to accompany him to the investigation of 



\ 



The Investigation. 155 

the mystery. Accordingly they solemnly 
proceeded towards the scene of alarm, the 
'Squire having provided himself with a long- 
disused sword which hung over his man- 
tel-piece, and the priest, more spiritually, 
brandishing his cross, and muttering " Vade 
retro, Satanas ! " and such other exorcisms 
as occurred to him on the way. The whole 
body of the inmates of the mansion followed, 
closely though tremulously, upon the foot- 
steps of the advanced guard, and, indeed, 
afraid to be left behind. As they reached 
the neighborhood of the door, whence the 
sounds appeared to come, there was a truly 
awful noise of scampering round the room 
and pattering, as it were, within. 

" The saints defend us ! " cried the priest, 
falling back, as this new demonstration 
was responded to by the screams of the 
females, who sank to the floor, in the ex- 
tremity of their terror, when another horri- 
ble yell sounded close at hand. 

" It's he, I verily believe," said the priest ; 



1.56 Old New Englmid Traits, 

" the holy saints be about us ! It's he, I 
wager. Lord, forgive us ! for I heard the 
sound of his hoofs. But where's the dog ? " 

" The dog ! " cried the 'Squire. " Why 
didn't I think of that before ! Open the 
door, I say, Pat, you cowardly vagabond ! " 

At this instant, there was a tremendous 
bounce against the door, which forced the 
latch, and out tumbled Old Grouse, caper- 
ing among the party, who still screamed 
and scattered out of his way, not yet con- 
vinced that the Evil One was not loosed 
and bodily among them. 

The relieved household at length re- 
turned to their interrupted avocations, and 
Pat declared to the folks in the kitchen, 
that all the while he knew it was the dog, 
only he kept up the fright for the sake of 
the joke. It seemed that the 'Squire had 
been out with his gun that day, and had 
shut the big dog which accompanied him 
into the gun-room, upon his return. The 
dog, no doubt fatigued with his excursion. 



A Title finds a Story. 1 5 7 

had stretched himself out in a corner of 
the room, where various articles tending to 
his comfort lay disposed. He had remained, 
until tired of his confinement he had risen, 
and fumbling about had thrown down an 
ancient heavy shield, which produced the 
first cause of alarm, no less to himself than 
to the household. The moon shining 
through the window had attracted his at- 
tention, and he began to bay, as dogs 
sometimes will. The sudden fright, and 
the distance of the gun-room from the 
family apartment, served to modify the in- 
tonation, and in his confusion of mind Mr. 
Featherston failed to recognize his voice. 
" Indeed," said he, " I never knew the 
whelp to bay before." 

As time wore on, and the story had 
often been told by him, it lost none of its 
original features, except, perhaps, the re- 
membrance of his own agitation. But the 
fright of the family and his domestics, the 
assent of the priest to their superstitious 



158 Old New England Traits » 

fears, and the mortal terror which over- 
whelmed them, when out bounded the 
shaggy black monster of a dog and in an 
instant was pawing them all round, in his 
ecstasy of escape, and whatever else was 
ludicrous in the adventure, was oftentimes 
related by the 'Squire, with all the aid it 
could derive from a somewhat lively im- 
agination and considerable power of native 
eloquence. 

And now, if I have only invented this 
story of " Old Grouse in the Gun-room," 
for the entertainment of my readers, I 
have at least attached a tale, which may 
be thought to have some plausibility, to a 
famous title, which has run through the 
world, for so many years, without any tale 
at all. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

In a note at the end of Chapter V. of 
" Waverley," Sir Walter Scott remarks : — 
" These introductory chapters have been 
a good deal censured as tedious and un- 
necessary. Yet there are circumstances 
recorded in them which the author has 
not been able to persuade himself to retract 
or cancel." So if, in giving certain loose 
hints rather than sketches of characters 
and manners in a very interesting town, 
ardently beloved by all who have ever 
had any near connection with it, during 
a former generation of its inhabitants, I 
should be thought to have set down too 
many " unconsidered trifles," I can only 
shelter myself under the shadow of his 
great name, and plead that I had not the 
heart to leave them out, as they occurred 
to my memory while writing ; and how- 



i6o Old New England Traits. 

ever they may lack, as they necessarily 
must, the storied value of Sir Walter's fas- 
cinating fictions, they have at least this 
merit, — that every narrative and anecdote 
in these pages is a veritable fact. 

I should not wonder, however, if a couple 
of stories or so, which I am about to relate, 
were looked upon as purely fictitious by 
the philosophical reader. I do not pretend 
that the facts stated were within my own 
experience, only that I positively heard 
them related by persons of the strictest 
veracity, who were actual observers or 
actors in the transactions of which they 
professed to give an account. People rid- 
icule, nowadays, when in company, the su- 
perstitions of earlier times ; though it is 
not unlikely that the nerves of some of the 
boldest contemners of marvellous manifes- 
tations, once universally accepted as true, 
might still tremble, if alone and under cir- 
cumstances calculated to awaken apprehen- 
sion and to puzzle the understanding. Not- 



Christmas Evening, i6i 

withstanding the accepted theory, that the 
very pretence of witchcraft, for example, 
was exploded a hundred and fifty years 
ago, and the idea of an apparition, in spite 
of Dr. Johnson's belief, and that of others 
as wise and stout as he, would be scouted 
as preposterous in cultivated circles, I be- 
lieve that there are many places in New 
England where undoubting faith in both 
superstitions still prevails, and I know that 
within a third part of the period above 
mentioned, very many creditable persons in 
a certain place in New England accepted 
the strangest occurrences of both kinds, 
upon the supposed evidence of their sober 
senses. 

We will imagine, then, that we are sitting 
in a circle around the fire-place in Uncle 
Richard's spacious kitchen, on the evening 
of Christmas-day, the room lighted only by 
the blazing logs upon the hearth, the glow 
of which glanced along the walls and 
drew brilhant reflections from the brightly- 
II 



1 62 Old New England Traits. 

scoured dishes and other utensils of metal, 
which stood ranged upon the shelves. We 
were quite a party, and had made merry, 
according to our fashion, during the day. 
Uncle Richard was himself the most con- 
spicuous of the group. I have said that 
he was well-to-do, and he was certainly 
a gentleman in spirit and bearing. The 
black dress which he assumed on Sundays, 
and other occasions of public importance, 
set off his figure well, and his white hair 
gathered into a pig-tail behind and tied up 
with a ribbon by some one of his daughters, 
of a morning, gave him a venerable appear- 
ance, at least in the eyes of us youngsters, 
beyond what the actual number of his 
years warranted. For I have observed that 
those who may have seemed to us ap- 
proaching the verge of old age, in our 
youth, begin to look almost like coevals 
again, as we ourselves have advanced in 
the stage of manhood. Aunt Judith, on 
the other hand, who was a maiden lady 



Christmas Hymn, 163 

of a certain age, was dressed with all the 
care and neatness which somewhat scanty 
means enabled her to apply, and, as I am 
about to produce her as a witness, I feel 
it incumbent upon me to asseverate, that, 
being a devoutly religious woman, I have 
never met in my life with a more conscien- 
tious and scrupulously truth-telling person. 
After tea, my uncle had requested the 
young people present to sing a new Christ- 
mas Hymn, not to be found in the Prayer 
Book, but the production of a devout poet- 
ical acquaintance, in the performance of 
which he joined with a bass voice of singu- 
lar compass and melody. . 

THE CHRISTMAS HYMN. 

How hallowed grew the night, 

When the auspicious light 
Of heaven descending shone along the plain ; 

And wondering shepherds heard 

The soul-inspiring word, 
That swelled exultant the celestial strain I 



164 Old New England Traits^ 

" Peace and good-will to earth, 
For, lo, a Saviour's birth ! " 
So the high song addressed the simple swains; 
" The gates of life again 
Open to guilty men. 
For God, the God of love, eternal reigns ! " 

What though all earth was still, 

And no ecstatic thrill 
In wakening lands the gracious message hailed ; 

Yet through heaven's highest cope 

Echoed immortal hope, 
And hell's dark caves beneath trembled and wailed. 

Let then creation sing, — 

Hail, sovereign priest and king ! 
Blest be thy holy name and holy Word ! 

Hail, Son of God Most High, 

Helper forever nigh, — 
Hail, Prince of Peace and universal Lord ! 

The conversation, at such times, is very 
apt to run into story-telling, among those 
who have any stores of memory, or are 
possessed of inventive faculties, and often 
turns upon such inexplicable incidents as 
might well bewilder the imaginations of 



A Brave Lad. 165 

simple country folks. My uncle gave us 
an account of a lad not long before in his 
employ, who laughed at the idea of super- 
natural appearances, and was indeed afraid 
of nothing. " The young scamp," said he, 
" though I don't know why I should call 
him so, for he was as honest as he was 
bold, — appeared so thoroughly fearless, that 
it sometimes looked like mere bravado (I 
am afraid he pronounced it brave-ardor) ; 
and a companion who also lived with us 
resolved to put his courage to the test. 
Accordingly, at dusk one evening, when 
Jack was about to lead the horse to the 
pasture, he provided himself with a sheet, 
and placed himself on one end of the cross- 
beam which rested on the rather high posts 
of the gate. Jack came whistling along, 
leading the horse, and, opening the gate, 
slipping off the halter, gave the animal a 
slap with it ; and as he shut the gate cocked 
up his eye at the elevated figure. " And 
as for you, Mr. Devil," says he, "you may 



1 66 Old New England Traits. 

sit there just as long as you please." A 
decent respect for the proprieties of his 
position kept the scarecrow quiet until 
Jack was well on his way to the house 
which was not far distant. Pretty soon 
the door was burst open, and, to our alarm, 
some one tumbled in upon the floor in an 
agony of terror, as we soon discovered, pale 
as a ghost and scarcely able to speak. As 
soon as he recovered some degree of self- 
possession, he could barely stutter out, — 
" When Jack got out of sight — I turned to 
get down — and there sat another one, on 
the other post — looking just like me ! " ^ 
A great deal was thereupon said about 

1 Jack's composure has a parallel in that of an old- 
time Scottish clergyman, as the story is told by Dean 
Ramsay. On returning home late from a dinner abroad 
his way led through the churchyard, and some mischiev- 
ous fellows thought to frighten him. One of them came 
up to him dressed as a ghost, but the minister coolly 
inquired, ** Weel, maister Ghaist, is this a general rising, 
or are ye juist taking a daunder frae yer grave by yer- 
sel?" 



Witches. 167 

the power of the imagination and the effect 
it was likely to have upon one who had 
placed himself in such an equivocal situa- 
tion, and the terrors which, under its influ- 
ence, might naturally revert to him, who 
in an excited state of his own nerves had 
endeavored to inflict such terrors upon 
another. Hereupon there was a general 
call upon Aunt Judith, from the youngsters 
present, to tell us something about re- 
puted witches in her younger days, — a sub- 
ject in regard to which she was said to be 
able to make some remarkable statements, 
though as yet we had never obtained from 
her any satisfactory information about it. 
She seemed a little reluctant to indulge our 
curiosity. 

" As to witches," said my uncle Richard, 
gravely, " I don't know. Whether the de- 
nunciations of them in Holy Writ are in- 
tended to apply to any actually supernatural 
power possessed by them, or only to the 
pretence of it, — and both are mischievous 



1 68 Old New England Trails, 

in their effect on the popular mind, — I shall 
not undertake to say. It is certain that 
the poor old women who are thus stigma- 
tized seem to have little power to help them- 
selves in this world, or, if real tamperers 
with the powers of darkness, any enjoy- 
able expectations from the other. But 
this I do know, that I was riding, not many 
days since, with my lawyer, a man of con- 
siderable acuteness, though a little eccen- 
tric at times, coming from K — 's Island, 
where we had been on some business ; and 
as we neared the turn of the causeway to 
the main road, he pulled up the chaise, 
jumped out, and placing himself on a broad 
flat rock by the road-side, began violently 
to dance up and down and to shake his 
clothes. ' Good Heavens ! ' cried I, * are 
you mad ? ' * Oh, no,' said he, resuming 
his seat, * but my mother always told me, 
that whenever I was coming away from 
K — 's Island, I must stand upon that rock 
and shake the witches off ! ' " 



A Case of Witchcraft. 169 

" But your story, Aunt Judith ! your 
story," we all cried out, and after a little 
more hesitation the good woman prit la 
parole, as Madame de Stael so often phrases 
it in " Corinne." 

" When I was a grown-up girl," said 
she, "I and my older sister, who had lost 
her husband at sea, lived with my mother, 
who was also a widow. We had few of 
this world's goods, but health and energy 
enough to take care of ourselves. At one 
time, we moved into half a house, in a de- 
cent quarter of the town, the other part of 
which was occupied by an old woman called 
by the neighbors * Granny Holt.' Coming 
from a street of the town at some distance, 
we had heard nothing that I remember 
about her ; but the day had not gone by, 
before it was made fully known to us by 
such acquaintances as we saw, that we 
had taken up our abode in the same house 
with a person of a very crabbed disposition, 
whom all the neighborhood looked upon as 



170 Old New England Traits. 

a witch. This was not very agreeable 
news, but we tried to make the best of it. 
Our house was near the river-side, and we 
were surrounded by the families of those 
who followed the sea, and we endeavored 
to flatter ourselves with the idea, that idle 
tales of marvelous things are very common 
among that class of population ; and that 
the stories we heard were mere gossip, as 
we whispered to ourselves, for fear of be- 
ing overheard through the thin partition 
which divided us from the other tenant. 
But, * No ! ' said one of our callers in a 
low voice — one of the Pearse girls (a young 
lady, by the way, about seventy, but Aunt 
Judith was of a certain age) ; * I tell you 
it's as true as a sermon in the meetin'- 
house. You'll soon find out what she can 
do. Why, there's young Stout, as fine a 
lad as ever walked the streets, or stood by 
the helm of his vessel in a gale o' wind ; and 
look at him now, pale and cadaverous, and 
walking round people's gardens, on the edge 



Doubts and Fears, 171 

of narrow fences where nobody but a rope- 
dancer, with a pole in his hands, could 
keep his balance, and a hundred more 
such antics; everybody knows she be- 
witched him/ 

" ' But what for ? ' we asked. 

" ^ Oh, they had a quarrel, and pretty soon 
he began to cut these capers.' 

"My sister Ann, the widow, however, 
who had always a brave spirit, declared 
that she did not care a fig for all the 
witches in Christendom ; but I must own 
that I was very much alarmed. You may 
be sure, we none of us much liked this sort 
of greeting, on the first day of our entering 
into our new habitation, and we prepared 
to retire early, my mother, who was a truly 
pious person, trusting to the only sure 
defence. Upon going to my chamber, I 
found there was no fastening to the door ; 
in fact the handle itself was quite out of 
kilter, and it could not be shut tight. I 
moved up to it, therefore, a chest of draw- 



172 Old New England Trails, 

ers, putting some things on top, and thus 
brought the door close. I was just about 
to blow out the candle to get into bed, 
when I heard a scrambling in the chimney, 
and you may believe it or not, but it's the 
solemn truth — a black cat jumped from 
the fire-place, ran and leaped a-top of the 
things I had placed against the door, put 
her paw upon the handle of it, gave me one 
sidelong glance, opened the door itself and 
passed out. I was too frightened for any- 
thing but to wrap myself thoroughly in the 
bedclothes, and trembling with terror, at 
last fell into a troubled sleep." 

"Are you sure, Aunt Judith," said my 
uncle Richard, " that the cat did not go 
under the bed } " 

" I tell you, as plainly as I see you now, 
I saw her open the door, look round at me 
with that malicious kind of expression, go 
out and shut the door behind her ; and in 
the morning everything I had piled up 
against it was unmoved." 



Witchery, i73 

'' It must have been the ghost of a cat, 
then," said my uncle ; " but did anything 
else happen, afterwards ? " 

" Yes, in a few days we had got a baking 
ready and the oven heated, when the old 
woman came in with an armful of wood, 
threw it down on the hearth, and said she 
wanted to bake. The oven was for the use 
of both parts of the house ; but we told her 
as soon as we had got through she should 
have it. She went off muttering, and when 
we thought our batch was done and went 
to take it out, it was burned just as black 

as a coal." 

" I am afraid," said my uncle, "you let it 
stay in too long, or the oven was too hot." 

" You may laugh as much as you please," 
replied Aunt Judith, with spirit, "but I tell 
you what I actually saw with my own eyes. 
We did not stay longer in that house than 
we could find another place ; but before 
we left something took place which per- 
haps you'll not find it so easy to explain. 



174 ^^^ New England Traits, 

Young William Stout's folks had been so 
troubled about him, and the doctors said 
they could do nothing, that they deter- 
mined to try a * project.' " 

I may as well explain what Aunt Judith's 
modesty prevented her from doing ; that a 
"project" was to inclose a certain liquid 
emanation of the afflicted person in a phial 
tightly stopped, and to put it over the fire 
in a pot to boil. Of course, as in the case 
of the sympathetic remedies described by 
Sir Kenelm Digby and practised by him, 
as the contents of the phial boil, the witch 
burns, and she is inevitably detected by 
the scorching she gets and the scars it 
leaves behind. It is from this circumstance, 
undoubtedly, that the nursery rhyme de- 
rives its authority, — 

" Hinx minx, the old witch winks, 
The fat begins to fry," etc. 

This is precisely the operation of the 
process in question. 

"Accordingly," continued Aunt Judith, 



A ''Project:' 175 

" the Stout folks made all their prepara- 
tions, in company with some trusty neigh- 
bors ; the doors were fastened, and exactly 
at twelve o'clock the ' project ' was begun. 
Everything went on well ; but, as often 
happens in such cases, something was for- 
gotten, or the witches' master interferes ; 
for it seemed, after a while, that more water 
was wanted, and one of the company took 
the pail to go to the well for it. As he 
cautiously opened the door, there to their 
horror stood Granny Holt, in the dark- 
ness of midnight ! She came in grinning 
and complimenting, and without expressing 
surprise at finding so many persons to- 
gether, at such an unusual hour, or making 
any inquiry as to the reason, she said, ' one 
of their folks was taken sick and seeing a 
light there, she had come over to beg some 
herbs.' There was the end of the project, 
and I don't know as it was ever tried 
again." 

*' Were you there, yourself.^" asked Un- 
cle Richard. 



176 Old New Enola7id Traits, 

" No," I can only swear to the black cat 
and the burnt pies ; but everybody in our 
neighborhood knew all about the project 
and Granny Holt's breaking it up." 

We had become pretty well stirred up 
by this time, but as is likely to be the case 
under such circumstances, were eager for 
whatever other marvel might be forthcom- 
ing ; for no matter how intelligent or incred- 
ulous the circle of hearers may be, there is 
something strangely fascinating in these 
weird stories. People may affect indiffer- 
ence " amidst the blazing light of the nine- 
teenth century ; " but I think that of a dark 
night, in a lonely spot, the starting up of so 
familiar a creature as a white horse, for in- 
stance, would set the strongest nerves into 
perturbation, at the idea of something 
ghostly. Indeed, Addison declared in his 
day, that there " was not a village in Eng- 
land that had not a ghost in it ; the church- 
yards were haunted ; nor was there a peas- 
ant who had not seen a spirit." 



The Tops field Spectre. 177 

" Well, Aunt Judith," said Uncle Rich- 
ard, " these wonderful things seem to have 
very much gone by, in our day, or else 
people, for some reason, take less notice 
of them than formerly. Witches, nowa- 
days, are characters entirely unknown, ex- 
cept," he gallantly remarked, " for the 
sometimes really inexplicable fascinations 
of members of your own sex ; and, except 
in one singular instance, I have known of 
no appearances which could not be ration- 
ally accounted for. I have heard my fa- 
ther, however, tell of one which, according 
to the tradition, manifested itself, one hun- 
dred years ago or more, upon a bridge, over 
the Ipswich River, in our Essex County 
town of Topsfield, and was the terror qf 
all the country round. He appeared in 
the shape of a monstrous hog, taking his 
station, at night, in the very centre of the 
bridge ; and those who had occasion to 
cross it, on horseback or on foot, were 
either fain to turn back, as he encountered 
12 



178 Old New England Traits. 

them, bristling and snarling, or rushed by, 
if their occasion demanded it, in a state of 
extraordinary trepidation. At length. Par- 
son Capen, the worthy minister of the 
town, riding up to the bridge one evening, 
saw the spectre in his usual position. 
Nothing daunted, in virtue of his holy of- 
fice, the good man thus accosted him : 
* You that were once an angel of light, ain't 
you ashamed to appear in the shape of a 
dirty swine ? ' This expostulation was too 
much for the foul fiend, who at once jumped 
over the railing of the bridge into the river, 
and was no more seen." 

Amongst others of the few guests of the 
evening was a young gentleman, a member 
of one of the learned professions, who was 
accounted an intellectual person and was 
of rather grave demeanor. Though known 
to have been the author of occasional 
verses which gained applause, he would 
not have been thought likely to be the 
subject of any extraordinary hallucination. 



A Remarkable Story, 179 

He was an intimate friend of our family, 
and on certain occasions of unusual excite- 
ment, if not danger, in the midst of the 
various adventures of young people, had 
shown a singular firmness of nerve and 
presence of mind, and was thought to be 
in fact insensible to fear. He had listened 
to the story of the bold lad who saw the 
supposed apparition on the gate-post, and 
to that of the Topsfield spectre, with 
much the same interest as that which 
Marmion exhibited at Sir David Linde- 
say's narrative of the appearance of the 
beloved Apostle to King James in Linlith- 
gow. Apparently induced by a similar 
irresistible impulse to that which drew 
from the redoubted warrior of Scott's fasci- 
nating poem the rehearsal of his nocturnal 
adventure, our guest volunteered a relation 
quite as remarkable. 

" I will tell you a story," said he, " of 
something unaccountable which once hap- 
pened to me, though the circumstances 



i8o Old New England Traits. 

are still so vivid in my memory, that I look 
back upon it with a sort of superstitious 
dread, and feel a decided reluctance in ap- 
pealing to the sympathy of others, in re- 
gard to an incident which seemed exclu- 
sively addressed to myself and was confined 
to my own sole experience. 

" In my senior year at College, now as 
you know, not many years since, I was 
appointed by my class to prepare for deliv- 
ery, on what is called Class Day, a literary 
exercise, — in fact a poem, in anticipation 
of the usual Commencement performances, 
and was at home, during the preceding 
long vacation, making ready for this 
event. The writing of poetry for public 
recitation before a critical audience is a 
rather exacting occupation, and my ambi- 
tion was naturally excited to do the best 
in my' power. Indeed, the work absorbed 
all my faculties ; but I preferred to write 
during the still hours of the night, rather 
than amidst the ordinary distractions of the 



A Remarkable Story, i8i 

day, spending that period, usually, wander- 
ing in the neighboring fields and woods, or 
in other diversions. The season was sum- 
mer, and I was sitting one night at an open 
window, committing to paper such thoughts 
as occurred to me, by the light of a single 
candle, — for lamps were then not very 
common and gas was entirely unknown. 
Outside, there was not a sound, for the 
whole town was buried in profound sleep, 
and our own household was in the same 
state of repose. It was just on the stroke of 
twelve. Our house was a very ancient one, 
though I never heard that there was any- 
thing peculiarly remarkable in its history. 
Sitting thus, and thus engaged in serious, 
solitary contemplation, the sudden fall of 
something heavy in the garret overhead 
gave me a momentary start. I could com- 
pare it to nothing but to the effect likely to 
be produced by something as soHd as a 
smaller description of cannon-ball, though 
it afterwards appeared to have attracted the 



1 82 Old New England Traits, 

attention of no one else in the family. Sup- 
posing that some article of furniture had ac- 
cidentally fallen, the noise of which had 
been rendered more noticeable by the per- 
fect stillness of the night, I pursued my oc- 
cupation, until I felt disposed for sleep. On 
the following night, while engaged in the 
same way, and at the same midnight hour, 
came the same heavy, sharp, distinct thud 
upon the floor directly above my head. I 
was disposed to philosophize on the subject, 
and, though the coincidence was certainly 
peculiar, I still conceived that this unusual 
sound, at such an unusual hour, might be 
attributed to some natural cause. Perhaps, 
a heavy cat might have jumped down from 
beams above, on both occasions, and the 
noise was magnified by the otherwise un- 
broken stillness, though so far as I remem- 
ber we kept no such cat of our own. I am 
sure that the idea of anything supernatural 
scarcely occurred to me, or was dismissed 
with derision. Nevertheless, the circum- 






A Remarkable Story, 183 

stances were peculiar enough to induce 
me to make a thorough examination of 
the garret on the following morning, and I 
was struck by the fact, that it was perfectly 
bare of any article of furniture above my 
chamber, or in the neighborhood of that 
part of the attic, which could have fallen. 
I was naturally a good deal perplexed at 
an occurrence for which there seemed no 
rational means of accounting, but I kept 
my own counsel. On the third night, at 
the same hour, when the clear bell from 
the steeple of a meeting-house not far dis- 
tant had just tolled twelve, came the same 
sudden, single, distinct sound of a fall on 
the floor, directly over my head. I will not 
say as Marmion did, on the occasion above 
referred to, — 

" ' I care not though the truth I show, — 
I trembled with affright.' 

" On the contrary, though not a little dis- 
turbed by incidents so unaccountable, and 
rendered by the interruption quite unfit to 



184 Old New England Traits, 

pursue my occupation further, I deliberately 
undressed, said my prayers, put out my 
candle, and went to bed. It was a bright 
starlight night, and the two windows of 
my chamber made objects within indis- 
tinctly visible. No sooner had I laid my 
head upon the pillow, than through a door 
at the foot of my bed appeared a slowly 
moving figure, turning the corner of the 
bed and approaching the side of it upon 
which I lay. I could distinctly see its out- 
lines, and it seemed to me apparelled like a 
monk, with a hood drawn over its features, 
and long trailing garments. As Eliphaz 
the Temanite, under similar circumstances, 
has related, — ' the hair of my flesh stood 
up.' But I did not quite lose my self- 
possession. As the figure came nearer, I 
instantly threw off the bedclothes and 
jumped towards it into the middle of the 
room, — and it was gone ! Though startled 
enough at so strange an occurrence, I re- 
flected that it must be an illusion produced 



Nervous Influences, 185 

by some casual disorder of the natural 
faculties, and returned to bed and slept as 
usual until morning. But the next day I 
was much more disturbed in recalling the 
several circumstances of this extraordinary 
visitation. The repeated previous heavy 
blows upon the floor, and their apparent 
consummation in the vision I supposed 
myself to have seen, made me, as Othello 
says, ' perplexed in the extreme.' On that 
day I told my mother the story; she laughed 
at the idea of supernatural appearances, 
perhaps to quiet her son's emotion ; but 
she said she was afraid of no ghosts, pro- 
posed an exchange of chambers, and this 
accommodation at once took place. But 
though I finished and delivered the poem 
in question, I continued to muse by myself 
upon what had occurred, unwilling to speak 
to any one about it. It was many months 
before I recovered from the shock to my 
nervous system. Reflecting upon it at 
the time, again I summoned whatever phi- 



1 86 Old New England Traits, 

losophy I had at command, as well as I 
could. I conceived that possibly in the ex- 
citement of verse-writing, in the silence of 
the night, some tenseness had affected the 
drum of my ear ; that hearing, or imagin- 
ing that I heard some unusual sound, amid 
the perfect stillness around me, a continu- 
ous disordered state of physical functions 
had produced a similar effect at a corre- 
spondent hour ; and that this experience 
not unnaturally culminated in the spectral 
visitation." 

We heard the story in terror, and put 
little faith in the theory of explanation. 

" But," said my uncle Richard, himself a 
good deal amazed at the narrative, " did 
anything happen afterwards, to account for 
what you have told us ? " 

'* Nothing whatever," replied our friend. 

"Did you ever sleep in that chamber 



again ? 



" Yes, some years afterwards. It so hap- 
pened that during several weeks in the 



Was it a Dove J 187 

summer, our whole family except myself, 
was away. My mother was in close attend- 
ance upon sick members of my sister's 
family ? My brothers were at sea, and even 
our ordinary servant was dismissed for the 
occasion. When the time for rest arrived, 
it was my habit to let myself into the house, 
to proceed to the same chamber, usually 
without a Hght, and go to bed. One night, 
putting my hand upon the pillow, I felt 
something soft and started back, but again 
reaching forward, the object proved to be a 
dove that had flown into the open window, 
and securing it without difficulty I gave 
that symbol of innocence immediate re- 
lease. Perhaps, it was my former visitant 
in a less forbidding form. But this, as well 
as the other, passed into the course of 
ordinary events." 

I need not say, that we had listened to 
this extraordinary narrative with rapt at- 
tention and in breathless silence. Our 
friend had told his story with emotion, 



1 88 Old New England Traits, 

certainly, but still with serious deliberation, 
and exhibiting no undue signs of excite- 
ment. No one seemed disposed to make 
any observation upon it, and indeed most of 
the company were utterly incapable of the 
effort of speech. In a few moments, he re- 
marked that he would quote to us a brief 
passage from Dante's great poem which 
was applicable to the subject, and did so 
as follows : — 

. . . . " Now, O reader ! mark, 
And if my tale thou slowly shalt receive, 

Thy doubt will cause in me no great surprise, 
For I, who saw it, scarcely can believe." ^ 

" But, Uncle Richard," was now the cry, 
"you said you had once seen an appari- 
tion, or something like one ; please tell us 
all about it." 

" I certainly saw something strange," 
said he, "on more than one occasion, which 
has never yet been accounted for ; and I 
suppose it is now too late to expect it. 

1 Inferno, Canto xxv., Parsons's translation. 



I 



Uncle Richard's Story. 189 

If it was really a matter of concert and 
collusion, the motive for it has never 
been discovered. You remember the open 
space in town, in front of the Reverend 

]\Ir. 's meeting-house. Your house, as 

you know, Jemmie," addressing me, " looks 
directly up the street towards this square, 
and to the somewhat old-fashioned man- 
sion opposite the meeting-house. On one 
side of the square was a small dwelling, 
occupied by several distant relatives of 
ours ; Aunt Midkiff (Metcalf ), Aunt Fog- 
gison (Ferguson, so called), and her sister, 
Miss Samples (Mrs. Semple), with the 
daughter of our Aunt Foggison, Mrs. Lane, 
and her only child. You remember, sis- 
ter," addressing my mother, " that you have 
told me, that one night, after you had gone 
to bed, your lamented husband stood at. the 
window looking up the street towards the 
old house above, of which he had a com- 
plete view. Upon your asking what de- 
tained him, he called you up, and it was 



IQO Old New England Traits. 

evident to you both that one chamber of 
the house was in a light blaze. Persons 
appeared to be moving rapidly around it, 
and, as it were, pulling down the curtains 
of the bed, which looked as if on fire. 
After a little time the appearance gradually 
ceased, and your husband remarking that 
he would inquire in the morning of his 
neighbor, a highly respectable lawyer, who 
occupied the house, what was the cause of 
the extraordinary spectacle of the night 
before, he also retired. But upon putting 
the question to his acquaintance on the 
following morning, he seemed astonished, 
and utterly denied that anything unusual 
had taken place in the chamber, which was 
the one occupied by himself and his wife, 
or that they had been at all disturbed dur- 
ing the night. 

" Now all this," continued my uncle, " is 
quite consistent with the supposition, that 
this gentleman may have had some secret 
motive for concealing the fact of a threat- 



A Strange Narrative. 191 

ened conflagration, pretty sure, if known, 
to become the town talk and perhaps to ex- 
pose him to inconvenient inquiries ; and 
though a strictly moral and religious man, 
he may have thought that the circum- 
stances warranted a direct denial of the 
matter, seeing it was, as it turned out, an 
affair of purely domestic concern." 

My mother, I thought, looked at my 
uncle a little anxiously, and seemed about 
to make a movement for our departure ; but 
we urged him to tell us to what strange 
thing he had referred, and why he had so 
particularly described the situation and 
characteristics of this square, as if there 
were something more in relation to it which 
it might interest us to know ; for you may 
be sure our mother had never mentioned 
to us children anything likely to alarm us. 

" I am afraid," said he, at last " that some- 
thing, which really did happen in front of 
the house I have spoken of will startle 
you young folks, and perhaps it is foolish 



192 Old New England Traits. 

to relate it, as you seem already quite ex- 
cited enough ; but I will premise by saying, 
that I will only tell you what I saw my- 
self, or heard from those upon whose word 
I could implicitly rely ; and, moreover, that 
I do not believe in ghosts, however singu- 
lar the facts in question may appear. Of 
course, you know, sister," addressing my 
mother, " my calls at your house were 
sometimes in the evening, after attending 
the market or to other business during the 
day. It was during one of your husband's 
absences at sea, that we were sitting around 
the fire of a wintry night, when a lively 
neighbor, a lady who took much interest in 
whatever was going on, came in evidently 
in a state of agitation, and taking her seat, 
with very brief greeting, broke out with 
the exclamation, ' There he is again ! ' I 
did not understand what this meant ; but 
it was soon explained to us that, for a 
week or ten days past, some person, or 
figure, or whatever it might be, had been 



An Unsocial Pedestrian. 193 

observed walking fore and aft, in front of the 
house opposite the meeting-house, at a 
certain hour of the evening, and though 
many had passed, no one had recognized 
him, nor did he take any notice whatever 
of any one whom he met. He was said to 
wear a pea-jacket buttoned to the chin, and 
a glazed hat, as if prepared for any kind 
of weather ; or, as the gossips afterwards 
said, indicating the fact that he was the 
forerunner of the loss of not a few masters 
of vessels residing in the neighborhood, 
who perished at sea during the storms of 
that season. I took my hat and went out 
to see if I could discover anything uncom- 
mon. It was a moonlight night, with a light 
fall of snow upon the ground. As I passed 
up the short street to the square. Aunt 
Foggison's chamber window was thrown 
open, and her daughter's voice was plainly 
heard berating the supposed spectral night- 
walker. ' What are you doing there, you 
good-for-nothing scamp, you ? ' cried she, in 
13 



194 Old New England Traits, 

a voice that must have reached any mortal 
ears ; ' why don't you go home to your fam- 
ily, if you've got any family, or wherever 
else you belong, instead of stalking up and 
down here, frightening honest folks out of 
their senses ? ' Overcome perhaps by the 
vigor of her expostulation, the window was 
shut down with a slam. As I advanced, 
though I certainly had a full view of a 
human-looking figure upon its round and 
at no great distance either, and my senses 
had been confirmed by the objurgations ad- 
dressed to it by our worthy relative, when 
I actually reached the ground of his peram- 
bulations, prepared to seize a single man 
by the collar and learn what he was about, 
it is certain that he was no longer visible. 
I returned to the house and made report of 
my unsuccessful doings, and unhitched my 
horse and drove home. I learned, a few 
days afterwards, that the figure regularly 
appeared, giving one sign of vitality by a 
regular tramp — tramp — tramp — upon the 



A Cordon for a Ghost. 195 

frozen ground, so far as any one was dis- 
posed to listen, and spreading consterna- 
tion throughout the vicinity. The affair at 
length became unendurable. Women were 
afraid to go into the street, and, for that, 
a good many men too, and it was really so 
serious, that, as I learned, it was resolved to 
form what is called, I believe, a cordon, and 
gradually approaching the place simultane- 
ously from every avenue, so to inclose him 
that escape would be impossible. Be- 
ing much acquainted with the people of 
that part of the town, I was invited to join 
the company, and accordingly drove in sea- 
sonably for the purpose. Certainly, most 
sober people believed the whole was but 
some trick, which it only needed reasonable 
pains to discover and defeat. The myste- 
rious figure, it seemed, continued to walk, 
ignorant of or indifferent to our devices. 

" There were three main avenues, by 
streets, to the premises, together with a 
narrow passage way leading from one of the 



196 Old New England Traits, 

streets to another. At the appointed hour 
we duly assembled on our several stations. 
Our director was *a rude and boisterous 
captain of the sea ' " — (for Uncle Richard 
could sometimes be poetical, at least in the 
way of quoting Shakespeare). " It had been 
arranged by him that, being on our posts, 
at a fixed moment, we should move rapidly 
up the several avenues and so join forces 
as to form a circle inclosing the open 
space, and gradually contracting our com- 
pany, if the rogue was then within our 
compass we should have him sure. The 
arrangement had been made in profound 
secrecy, and if any there were traitors, I 
was not aware of it. Sure enough there 
was our guest on his usual stroll. As our 
circle speedily drew in, and just as hands 
were stretched out to seize him — presto, 
as the jugglers say — he was gone ! " 

" By the jumping gingerbread ! " ex- 
claimed Thurlow, our uncle's hired man, 
springing from his chair by the wall, out- 



A 71 Elusive Ghost, 197 

side of our family party, — seeing this was 
Christmas night. 

" Oh dear sus ! " cried Sally Bannocks, 
our own particular help of many years, 
from the hke position. 

" Our detective band," resumed my un- 
cle, " looked at one another in amazement, 
and after some hard swearing from a few of 
the roughest, and the exchange of a hasty 
' good-night,' dispersed, as far as convenient 
in companies of two or three, and departed, 
a good deal disconcerted, to their several 
places of abode. The same experiment was 
tried on two or three other occasions, as I 
was informed by friends, with no better 
success. Spectre or not, he always found 
means to elude them ; and there were al- 
ways those who, having no other means of 
accounting for his evasion, insisted upon it 
that he must have had confederates among 
those who sought to arrest him." 

" Could he not have escaped slyly into 
the house t " asked some incredulous in- 
quirer. 



198 Old New England Traits, 

"That was hardly hkely, with so many 
eyes upon him. Besides there was nobody 
there but women and children, excessively 
alarmed themselves, the husband. Captain 

Y , being at sea, and one of those who 

was afterwards known to have been lost 
with all his crew, upon nearing our dan- 
gerous coast." 

" But why did not the city government 
make a piece of work of putting an end to 
such a scandal ? " inquired a doubter in 
spectral visitations. 

" Well, I suspect a whole body of police 
could do little towards capturing an actual 
ghost ; and then, too, there was at that time 
no city and no such force. Our town gov- 
ernment consisted of mostly ancient citi- 
zens, and three or four constables, all of 
whom, probably, preferred to remain quietly 
and comfortably at home, instead of ventur- 
ing out into the wintry night air, to hunt up 
ghosts." 

" Why didn't somebody try the effect of 
a bullet } " inquired another. 



The Ghost on his Beat, 199 

"Well, shooting was a rather violent 
remedy ; and as for firing at a ghost, I be- 
lieve every one was afraid." 

" Wasn't it strange, considering that he 
must have had some particular object in 
haunting that spot, and was likely, there- 
fore, to be found out by some of the neigh- 
borhood by his face, or dress, or figure, or 
gait, or in some way or other, if a real per- 
son, that he never was recognized ? " asked 
another of our evening guests. 

" It was strange enough," said my uncle ; 
" but few, if any, got very near him, and 
they perhaps, casual passers-by, who paid 
no attention to the fact. As for him, he 
only walked steadily backward and for- 
ward, turning neither to the right nor to 
the left, except at each end of his beat ; re- 
plying to no interrogatories, and appearing 
utterly unconscious of any epithets or rail- 
ings which from a distance were hurled 
at him. Only one man ever professed to 
have seen his face." 



200 Old New Engla7id Traits. 

" Who was that, uncle ? " we all eagerly 
exclaimed. 

" Late one stormy night, when the sno\% 
was falling fast," continued my uncle, — 
" and one would suppose that any reason- 
able creature of flesh and blood would wish 
to be safely housed, — an hostler named 
Dobbin, who had charge of a stable at 
one end of the street, was trudging home, 
swinging a lantern in his hand, to the small 
house in which he lived, at a little distance 
beyond the now pretty notorious * Ghost's 
Walk.' As he approached the spot, there, 
to be sure, was the object of terror, 
taking his usual exercise. ' Now,' as 
Dobbin told the story, ' thinks I to myself, 
I'll play you a trick, mister, and find out 
who you are, if I can. So, jest slyly un- 
fastening the door of the lantern, as I met 
him, I flung the door wide open and held 
it up to his face, and I says, says I, "A 
stormy night, friend." I thought I should 
know him, and guess I should if ever I do 



The breaking tcp. 201 

see him again, which I don't want to, I tell 
yotc ; and may I hope to die, if ever I saw 
that face before. He looked pale, and his 
eyes, as he fixed 'em on me, had what I call 
a sort of a stony glare. He never opened 
his mouth, but just looked. It was only 
a glance, as it were, for I never was so 
frightened in my life, and jest dropped 
lantern and scampered away home as fast 
as my legs could carry me.' " 

" Lud-a-massy ! " screamed Sally Ban- 
nocks, on the verge of hysterics, — and 
some of the rest of us were not far from that 
condition. We were mostly on our feet, 
and as my mother insisted upon our bid- 
ding "Good-night," Uncle Richard pro- 
posed, after a further trial of his capital 
cider, to harness his horse and drive us 
home in his covered wagon. But it was a 
fine night and, though getting rather late, 
we concluded that it would do us more 
good to take the air, in the mile or two of 
the walk to town. In the course of our 



202 Old New England Traits, 

preparations for departure, and in answer to 
a variety of questions, our uncle informed 
us, that the mystery was never cleared up, 
nor the trick, if trick it were, ever discov- 
ered. As to the tale of such a person as 
Dobbin, we might place what reliance upon 
it we saw fit ; and though the motive 
seemed certainly difficult to see, it might 
have been, after all, a well-contrived piece 
of deception, to be sure, a very laborious 
and unaccountable one, concealed by the 
collusion of parties in the secret. How 
long the ghost continued to walk he did 
not know ; but it finally disappeared, and 
the house had been inhabited by respecta- 
ble people ever since, who had suffered no 
disturbance. 

We reached home after a brisk walk, cross- 
ing rapidly — and with now and then a fur- 
tive look — the very premises so haunted 
in other days, and " Thanks be to Praise ! " 
ejaculated Sally Bannocks, as we entered 
and closed the door. The house was cold, 



" Thanks be to P raiser 203 

after having been shut up all day. We 
quickly separated to our several chambers, 
and as I laid my head upon the pillow and 
was soon sound asleep, I too, murmured 
to myself, " Thanks be to Praise ! " 



APPENDIX. 



The following papers, marked I., II., III. are 
copies of those discovered among family docu- 
ments in the house of Mr. H. W. S. Cleveland, 
of Salem, Massachusetts, several years ago. 
They were communicated by him to the late Mr. 
Henry Lunt, formerly a merchant of Boston, 
father of the late highly distinguished Rev. Dr. 
William Parsons Lunt, who died, much lamented, 
while on his travels, at Akaba, in Arabia. How 
these documents came to be deposited in Salem, 
it is not easy to say. It is probable, however, 
that copies were brought over by the " Mary and 
John," or the, " Elizabeth and Dorcas," which 
appear to have wintered in Boston, after their 
arrival, the passengers, or such of them as saw 
fit and were permitted, proceeding to Ipswich, 
the following year (1634) and thence to the plan- 
tation which they called Newbury. It is likely, 
therefore, that the papers which concerned the 



Appendix. 205 

passengers of those vessels might be taken to 
Salem, perhaps during Governor Endicott's ad- 
ministration, and placed in the hands of some 
official person at that place, so as to be more ac- 
cessible to the home of the people in question, 
instead of being retained at Boston, the journey 
to which from Newbury was in those days a 
long and tedious one, to be made on foot through 
the wilderness. 

To many persons the abstract of the Charter 
of Charles I., which is a very liberal one, can 
hardly fail to be interesting. The Orders in 
Council, referred to in the text, are still more 
so j while the list of passengers by the " Mary 
and John" comprises many names still to be 
found in Newbury. Many more familiar names 
will be found among those of the company 
which came by the '^ Elizabeth and Dorcas." 
It will be seen that in the list given are the 
names of Thomas Parker, an eminent divine, 
and of James Noyes, his nephew ; the first the 
long respected pastor of the church and the 
other the " teacher " at Newbury. 



2o6 Appendix, 

I. 

An Abstract of His Ma*^'" Charter for incor- 
porating the Company of the Mattachusetts Bay 
in New England in America, Granted in the 4th 
yeare of His Highness' Reign of England, Scot- 
land France & Ireland, Anno. Domini 1628 — 

And we do further of our especial Grace, cer- 
tain Knowledge & mere mocion for us our Heirs 
& Successors — Give and Grant to the said Gov- 
ernour & Company & their Sucessors for ever by 
these presents. That it shall be lawfuU & free for 
them & their Assigns at all & every Time & 
Times hereafter out of any of our Realms or 
Dominions whatsoev^, to take lade carry & trans- 
port for in & into their voyages, & for & towards 
the said Plantation in New England all such & 
so many of our Loving Subjects or any other 
Strangers that will become our Loving Subjects 
& live under our Alleigeance as shall willingly 
accompany them in the said Voyages & Planta- 
tions, And also Shipping, Armour, Weapons, 
Ordnance, Munition, Powder, Shott, Corn victuals 
& all manner of Cloathing, Implements, Furni- 
ture, Beasts, Cattle, Horses Mares, Merchan- 
dizes & all other things necessary for the said 
Plantation and for their use & Defence & for 
Trade with the People there & in passing & 



Appendix, 207 

returning to & fro, any Law or statute to the 
Contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding — 
And without paying or yielding any custom or 
Subsidy either Inwards or Outwards, to us our 
Heirs or Successors for the same, by the space 
of seaven years from the Day of the Date of 
these Presents — Provided that none of the 
said Persons be such as shall hereafter by 
Especial name be restrained by us, our Heirs 

or Successors 

And for their further Incouragem* of our 
Especial Grace & favor — we Do by these pres- 
ents for us, our Heirs & successors yield & grant 
to the said Governour & Company & their suc- 
cessors & every of them their Factors & Assigns 
that they & every of them shall be free & quit 
from all Taxes Subsidys & Customs in New 
England for the space of seaven years, and from 
all Taxes & Impositions for the space of Twenty 
one years upon all Goods & merchandizes at 
any time or times hereafter Either upon Impor- 
tation there, or Exportation thence, into our 
Realm of England or into any of our Dominions, 
by the said Governour or Company & their suc- 
cessors, their Deputys, Factors & Assigns or 
any of them except only the Five Pounds p*" Cen- 
tum due for Custom upon all such Goods & 
Merchandizes as, after the said seaven years 



2o8 Appendix, 

shall be expired, shall be brought or imported 
into our Realm of England or any other of our 
Dominions according to the Ancient Trade of 
Merchants, which Five Pounds p'^ centum only 
being paid it shall be thenceforth lawful! & free 
for the s*^ Adventurers the same Goods & Mer- 
chandizes to export & carry out of our Domin- 
ions into Foreign Parts without any Custom, 
Tax or other Duty to be paid to us our Heirs 
or Successors or to any other officer or officers 
or ministers of us our Heirs or Successors, — 

Provided that the said Goods & merchandize 
be shipp'd out within thirteen months after 
their first Landing within any part of the said 
Dominions — 

This is a true Copy of His Ma*^'' Letters 
Patent aforesaid — Custom House London 30th 
January 1633 Anno. R. Caroli Nono — 

John Wolstenholme, Collector. 



IL 

Orders in Council. 

New Eftgland, — At Whitehall the last of Feb- 
ruary, 1633. 

Present : 
Lo. Arch. Bp. of Cant. Earle of Kelley. 
Lo. Keep^ Lo. Cottington. 



Appendix, 209 

Lo. Pi-ivie Seal. M'. V. Chamb'line. 

Lo. High Chamb^Iine. W. Compt'. 
M^ Secretary "Wyndibank. 

Whereas by a Warr*. bearing date 22nd of 
this Present, the sev'all ships following bound 
for New England, and now lying in the River 
of Thames were made staye of untill further 
order from their Lo'pps. viz., The Clement & 
Job, The Reformation, The True Love, The 
Elizabeth Bonadventure, The Sea Flower, The 
Mary & John, The Planter, The Elizabeth 
& Dorcas, The Hercules & The Neptune. 

Forasmuch as the masters of the said ships 
were this day called before the Board & 
several Particulars given them in charge to be 
performed in their said voyage, amongst which 
the said masters were to enter into several 
Bonds of One Hundred Pounds a piece to His 
^laj'tys use before the Clarke of the Councell 
attendant to observe & cause to be observed 
and putt in Execucion these Articles following 
viz : 

1. That all and every Person aboard their 
Ships now bound for New England as aforesaid, 
that shall blaspheme or profane the Holy name 
of God be severely punis'h't. 

2. That they cause the Prayers contained in 
the Book of Common Prayers establisht in 

14 



2IO Appendix. 

the Church of England, to be said daily at the 
usual hours for Morning & Evening Prayers & 
that they cause all Persons aboard their said 
ships to be present at the same. 

3. That they do not receive aboard or trans- 
port any Person that hath not Certificate from 
the Officers of the Port where he is to imbarke 
that he hath taken both the Oathes of Alleige- 
ance & Supremacy. 

4. That upon their return into this King- 
dom they Certify to the Board the names of all 
such Persons as they shall transport together 
with their Proceedings in the Execu'ion of the 
aforesaid Articles — Whereunto the said M'■^ 
have conformed themselves — It was therefore 
& for diverse other Reasons best . known to 
their Lo^p'. thought fitt that for this time they 
should be permitted to proceed on their Voyage, 
and it was thereupon ordered that Gabriel Marsh 
Esq''. Marshalle of the Admiralty, & all other 
His Maj'ty's Officers to whom their said Warr*. 
was directed should be required upon sight 
hereof to discharge all & every the said Ships, 
& suffer them to depart on their intended 
Voyage to New England — Ex. Jon. Meantys. 



Appendix, 



211 



III. 
The names of such Passengers as took the Oathes 
of Supremacy, atid AlleigeaJice to pass for New 
England in the Mary &> John of Lofidon 
Robert Sayres Master, 

24th Mar. 1633. 
William Trace (Tracy) John Bartlett 



John Marshe 
John LufF 
Henry Traske 
William Moudey 
Robert Sever 
Thomas Avery 
Henry Travers 
Thomas Sweete 
]ohn Woodbridge 
Thomas West 
Thomas Savery 
Christopher Osgood 
Phillip Fowler 
Richard Jacob 
Daniel Ladd 
Robert Kingsman 



Robert Coker 
William Savery 

John Anthoney (left behind; 

Stephen Jurden 
John Godfrey 
George Browne 
Nicholas Noyce 
Richard Browne 
Richard Reynolds 
Richard Littlehall 
William White 
Matthew Hewlett (Hercuies) 
John Whelyer 
William Clarke 
Robert Newman 
Adrian Vincent. 



The 26th day of March. 
Nicholas Easton William Spencer 

Richard Kent Henry Shorte 

Abraham Mussey William Hibbens 



212 



Appendix, 



William Ballard 
Matthew Gillett 
William Franklin 
John Mussey 
Thomas Cole 
Thomas Parker 
James Noyce 
John Spencer 



Richard Kent 
Joseph Myles 
John Newman 
William Newbey 
Henry Lunt 
Joseph Pope 
Thomas Newman 
John Newman. 



For which we gave certificate, together with 
five others, which are said to be left behind to 
oversee the Chattle to pass in the Hercules 
viz. 

The names of the Passengers in the Hercules 
of London, John Kiddey Ma^ for New England. 

These six Passengers took their Oathes of 
Supremacy & Alleigeance the 24th March 
and were left behind the Mary & John, as 
intended to pass in y^ Hercules — viz : 



John Anthony 
Robert Early 
William Satcome 
Thomas Foster 
William Foster 
Matthew Hewlett. 



Cert, the six first 
to Mt'er Sayers as 
intended. 

Secondth to Mr. 
Kiddey to pass in the 
Hercules. 



1 6th April, 1634. 
Nathaniel Davyes 
George Kinge 
Thomas Rider 



Appendix, 213 

William Elliot 

William Fifeilde 

Henry Phelps. 
18. These proceedings were Copyed out of 
an Olde Book of Orders belonging to the Port 
of South'ton but now remaining at the Custom 
house in Portsmouth the 6th Day of December 
1735. Per Thomas Whitehouse. 



IV. 

In regard to the costume which prevailed, 
among persons of wealth and standing in New 
England, within a century, I quote a descrip- 
tive passage from a history of Newburyport, by 
Mrs. E. V. Smith, published in 1854, as fol- 
lows : — 

"With the incoming of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, garments more in conformity with present 
fashions took precedence of three-cornered hats, 
long coats with immense pocket-folds and cuffs, 
but without collars, in which the men of the 
eighteenth century prided themselves ; with their 
buttons of pure silver, or plated, of the size of 
a half-dollar, presenting a great superfluity of 
coat and waistcoat when contrasted with the 
short nether garments, ycleped " breeches," or 
" small-clothes," which reached only to the knee, 



2 1 4 Appendix* 

being there fastened with large (?) silver buckles, 
which ornament was also used in fastening the 
straps of shoes. The gentlemen quite equalled 
the ladies at this period in the amount of finery, 
and the brilliancy of colors in which they in- 
dulged. A light blue coat with large fancy but- 
tons, a white satin embroidered waistcoat, red 
velvet breeches, silk stockings, and buckled 
shoes, with a neckcloth, or scarf, of finely em- 
broidered cambric, or figured stuff, the ends 
hanging loose, the better to show the work, and 
liberal bosom and wrist ruffles (the latter usu- 
ally fastened with gold or silver buckles), were 
usually considered a proper evening dress for 
a gentleman of any pretension to fashion. The 
clergy and many other gentlemen commonly 
wore black silk stockings, and others contented 
themselves with gray woollen. The boots had 
a broad fold of white leather turned over the 
top, with tassels dangling from either side. The 
clergy frequently wore silk or stuff gowns and 
powdered wigs. The ladies usually wore black 
silk or satin bonnets, long-waisted and narrow- 
skirted dresses for the street, with long tight 
sleeves, and in the house, sleeves reaching to 
the elbow, finished with an immensely broad 
frill ; high-heeled shoes, and always, when in full 
dress, carried a profusely ornamented fan. The 



Appendix, 2 1 5 

excessively long waists, toward the close of this 
period, were exchanged for extremely short ones \ 
so short, that the belt or waist was inhumanly 
contrived to come at the broadest part of the 
chest. But no fashion of dress was so perma- 
nent as other customs clinging to particular 
eras. Anciently, as now, fashions were changed 
more or less extensively every ten years, though 
certain broad characteristics remained long 
enough to give specific character to the costum- 
ing of the eighteenth century." 

The writer is accurate enough, no doubt, in 
her general description ; but what lady could 
give an entirely correct account of a gentle- 
man's attire ? Knee-buckles, for instance, were 
almost necessarily small, instead of " large " ; 
it may be questioned whether top-boots were 
ever decorated with tassels, a single article of 
that sort often hanging at the front of a differ- 
ent kind of high boot, worn long after the be- 
ginning of the present century ; and as to the 
silk gowns of clergymen, it is but a very few 
years since they began to be disused in the 
pulpit by Presbyterian and Congregational min- 
isters. About forty years before the present 
period, many gentlemen wore dresses of the cut 
described by Mrs. Smith, though of a more sub- 
dued color, — black, blue, or drab. Not long 



2 1 6 Appendix. 

after the beginning of the present century, a 
chief magistrate of Massachusetts, Gov. Gore, 
made a sort of progress through the State, in 
imposing style. His elegant, open carriage was 
drawn by four handsome and spirited horses, 
and he was attended by his aids and several 
outriders. The governor was a gentleman of 
fine personal appearance, and was attired in the 
highest style of contemporary civil costume, 
with his white hair gathered behind into a satin 
bag, and his aids were in undress military 
costume. He was a "Federalist," and this 
demonstration cost him his election the next 
time; for, though a man of brilliant ability and 
high personal character, he served but one 
year. At a date fifteen years later, I saw the 
'^ Democratic " governor of Massachusetts, Mr. 
Eustis, in attendance upon the Commencement 
exercises, at Harvard College, dressed much in 
the fashion of half a century earlier ; namely, 
coat and waistcoat with broad flaps, small- 
clothes, ruffles at his bosom and wrists, a cocked 
hat of the old style, and a steel-hilted rapier at 
his side. Ten years afterwards, one of the best 
governors the Commonwealth has ever had, Mr. 
Lincoln, who served the State in this capacity 
for nine several terms, wore also a distinguishing 
costume, but more conformable to modern fash- 



Appendix. 2 1 7 

ions. About the ruffles to his shirt-bosom I am 
sure, and feel much confidence, from memory, 
in regard to black small-clothes and black silk 
stockings, and his hat was always decorated 
with a black cockade. Nowadays a governor's 
appearance scarcely distinguishes him from any 
ordinary person in the crowd. 

The cocked hats, however, and much of the 
costume of the eighteenth century, continued 
to be worn by the survivors of Revolutionary 
officers and some others, during the first quarter 
of the present century and afterwards. 



V. 

The subjoined interesting sketch of an an- 
cient dwelling-house and of a family which has 
inhabited it for several generations, was fur- 
nished by a distinguished friend, Thomas Coffin 
Amory, Esq., of Boston, who traces his ancestry 
on the maternal side to the family in question. 
Nor, in producing this highly interesting sketch, 
could I overlook Joshua Coffin, the historian of 
Newbury and a resident of that town, from the 
originally extensive territory of which various 
adjacent towns were eventually formed. He 
was possessed of many amiable qualities and 
inspired by the true antiquarian spirit, and labo- 



2 1 8 Appendix. 

riously pored among the not very carefully kept 
early records of the original settlement, and 
brought much out of chaos well calculated to 
illustrate its former history. Mr. Amory has, 
on various occasions, shown the spirit of a care- 
ful historical student and of an intelligent and 
zealous antiquary. His recent contributions to 
that excellent periodical, "The New England 
Historical and Genealogical Register," which 
has become of inestimable value, as a collection 
of facts illustrative of early New England history 
and biography, have given great pleasure to mul- 
titudes of readers, — especially his vivid and 
graphic descriptions of certain ancient and sto- 
ried mansions in Boston and Cambridge, and 
of their former inhabitants. Let us hope that 
researches of such abundant interest and value 
will soon claim and gain a still larger share of 
the public attention in a collected form. 

My dear Sir, — In your reminiscences of 
Newburyport you must not forget Joshua Coffin 
its historian, — one of the best of men, whom 
no one knew but to love. I see him now as 
he came to visit me several years ago, when he 
was representing his native town in the General 
Court, a fresh, hale, cheery gentleman, full of 
pleasant anecdotes relating to the past. He 



Appendix. 219 

owned and occupied the Coffin mansion, which 
had been the abode of seven generations of his 
family and name. Out of its portals had issued 
numberless admirable men and women, and 
from among the former, a large share of college 
graduates, at Harvard and other New England 
colleges, of lawyers, clergy, and soldiers, to do 
good service in their day and generation. 

At his suggestion, I visited this ancient dwell- 
ing which was erected about 1649, by Mr. Som- 
erby, the widow of whose progenitor Tristram 
Coffin, Jr., married. This Tristram was the eld- 
est son of another Tristram, first of the race in 
America, who not many years before, in 1642, 
came over from Brixton, near Plymouth, in Dev- 
onshire, bringing with him his mother, and two 
sisters, — Eunice who married William Butler, 
and Mary who became the wife of Alexander 
Adams, of Boston. He brought with him also 
several sons and daughters, to whom were added 
others born to him on this side the ocean. His 
family in the home country had shown the same 
tenacity and steadfastness, exemplified by their 
long continued residence at Newburyport ; for 
at Alwington and Portledge in Devon, they had 
flourished, if not from the flood, from periods 
very remote ; for according to the historical state- 
ment, the Normans when they came over in the 



2 20 Appendix, 

eleventh century found them there, and left 
them unmolested ; and there still dwell their de- 
scendants in the female line, who have assumed 
their appellation of Pine Coffin, one of the house 
of Pine having married the heiress of the fam- 
ily estates. 

Tristram the elder, and his sons James and 
Stephen, were among the nine who purchased 
the island of Nantucket from the Earl of Stir- 
ling in 1659, and went there to dwell. Their 
descendants have ever since been respectable 
and greatly multiplied, and not only on that 
island but all over the country, having since 
been estimated by thousands if not tens of thou- 
sands. Their usual average of children has 
been half a score, and from their numerous 
progeny and great longevity, we may judge 
what vigor was in the race. One of them, Wil- 
liam, son of Nathaniel, son of James, cruised 
over many seas, as commander of a merchant- 
man, and becoming interested in a Boston 
maiden, Ann Holmes, settled about 1720 in the 
provincial capital, where among other offices he 
filled widi credit to himself and his name was 
that for many years of warden of Trinity Church. 
He died before the Revolution, leaving many 
children ; most of his sons at that period becom- 
ing refugee loyalists, they and their descendants 



Appendix. 221 

taking high rank in the British military and 
naval service. John, son of Nathaniel, was a dis- 
tinguished officer in the Carolinas, and after- 
wards became Major-general. His brother, Sir 
Isaac, early became distinguished on the ocean, 
was an Admiral, Member of Parliament, and 
created a Baronet, which latter rank was also 
bestowed on Thomas Astor, son of William, the 
eldest son of the warden. Several others of 
the name and blood then and since have filled 
with distinction posts of honor and respecta- 
bility in the civil service of the mother country 
at home, in Canada, and in India. 

But this is a digression. The only connec- 
tion of the Nantucket branch with Newbury is 
that old Tristram lived there for a brief period, 
before repairing to his island home, and his 
son (the younger of the name of Tristram, the 
family name of a grandmother) and his poster- 
ity occupied the old mansion down through 
seven or eight generations, and still dwell be- 
neath its roof. At the time of its erection the 
edifice must have been among the most elegant, 
as its good state of preservation proves it to 
have been one of the most substantial of its 
day, when the notion, prevailing in England, 
that oak was the most suitable material of the 
forest for dwellings, governed in their choice, 



222 Appendix, 

with less reason, our American planters. It 
was built in the mode common to the period, 
round a vast brick chimney-stack, ten or twelve 
feet square. The principal apartment, now di- 
vided into two, possessed, as did also the kitch- 
en, one of those spacious fireplaces which are 
the marvel and envy of these degenerate days, 
when a hole in the carpet has superseded in 
many households the family hearth. It is 
pleasant to think of the groups that in the olden 
time clustered around them ; charming people, 
whom we know by tradition, and who are re- 
membered by many associations. 

The house possesses various other apart- 
ments of size and pretension, and has answered 
well the needs of the successive generations 
that have occupied it, not only as a spacious 
and commodious abode, but one sufficiently 
elegant to satisfy the advancing standards of 
taste and refinement. Among the marked feat- 
ures of the building are several small case- 
ments, lighting closets and staircases, which give 
variety to the monotonous symmetry of windows 
all of a size, one on top of another, and where 
all the openings for egress or light are in 
straight lines and of equal dimensions. It is 
many years since my visit, and I hope you will 
see it, for much that was peculiar, and made a 



Appendix, 223 

weird impression at the time, has passed out of 
mind. If the trickles in my own veins do not 
mislead, the present proprietors will be glad to 
have pleasure afforded to the reading commu- 
nity, even by this inadequate description of a 
house which has such claims to be known, if, as 
you intimate, you purpose to place this account 
of it in your Appendix. They will not consider 
it a liberty if I repeat what some one not long 
since told me of an interesting relic of the past 
discovered on its walls, a statement which might 
be related almost in the same words of the 
house of MacPhaedrics at Portsmouth. 

Not many years since it was concluded to 
repaper the hall, the walls of which were 
covered with several thicknesses of paper which 
had from generation to generation been pasted 
one upon another. It was thought best to re- 
move them all, and when a large party of young 
people, home for the holidays, were gathered 
for a dull week of weather under its roof, they 
determined to amuse themselves by stripping 
off the various layers of previous decorations, 
preparatory to the new one intended to take 
their place. Underneath them all was discov- 
ered, painted on the wall, artistic designs of 
figures and foliage, such as were common in 
the days of the Stuarts. All antiquarians are 



2 24 Appendix. 

familiar with the similar discoveries at Ports- 
mouth, to which allusion has been made. 

There are not many houses in America which 
have been so long owned and occupied by the 
same name. The old brick mansion near 
Portsmouth, of the Weeks family, the Curtis 
house at Boston Highlands, Fairbanks at Ded- 
ham, Pickering at Salem, were contemporaries 
in the period of the construction, and have de- 
scended from sire to son as has this of the 
Coffins. 

The house is pleasantly placed, and com- 
mands fine views from its windows. Even in 
winter it must be, if not a cheerful, an interest- 
ing abode to dwell in. In duller days, when 
skies are leaden, and the more you see around 
you the less you like it, its dreamy look of age 
and strangeness within and without may have 
a somewhat depressing influence. The aches 
and agonies of so many generations may gain 
an ascendancy over the exuberant joys that 
made their life worth living. It would sometimes 
seem that if fondness for the supernatural must 
be indulged, an old edifice like this would prove 
a haunt more attractive, and certainly more ap- 
propriate, for ghost and apparition than any 
school-room, however noted for its spells. Yet 
notwithstanding some lugubrious associations 



Appendix. 225 

connected with the family patronymic, phan- 
toms would have to tread softly and whisper 
low if they invaded its precincts ; for the vigor- 
ous vitality of its occupants and their cheery 
tonesj if up to the traditional standard of their 
race, would exorcise the very king of spectres 
himself, should he venture to stalk about at the 
noonday, or revisit the glimpses of the moon 
in its ancient chambers. 



VI. 

I MIGHT have mentioned, as one of the amuse- 
ments of childhood, the throwing of a piece of 
paper upon the embers of our wood-fire, for we 
had no coal in those days, and w^atching the 
gradual extinguishment of the sparks, likening 
it to a congregation entering the meeting-house. 
*' There they go in," we would say. " There's 
the minister;" and as the final spark disap- 
peared, — " Now, the sexton has gone in and 
shut the door." I speak of this only as a curious 
illustration of English ways traditionally surviv- 
ing in New England. Thus Cowper tells us : — 

*' So when a child, as playful children use, 
Has burnt to tinder a stale last year's news, 
15 



2 26 Appendix. 

The flame extinct, he views the roving fire, — 
There goes my lady, and there goes the squire ; 
There goes the parson, O illustrious spark ! 
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk ! 



VII. 

Several allusions having been made in the 
text to the "Wolfe" Tavern, I am able to present 
the following original bill of lading, constituting 
an incident in relation to the famous expedition 
to Quebec, and evincing at least a more formal 
recognition of a superintending Providence, 
than is the custom of more modern days : — 



Appendix. 



227 



te)C/2hJ'T3KMOO>W "« 



t^. 



M £ "^ S ?^ ;;•" 



MOO vO 0^ M 

w 'S "^ O •■' «" 3 



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CD O 

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2 28 Appendix, 

VIII. 

On my occasional visit to Boston, I usually 
put up at the Eastern Stage House, perhaps 
because it was there that the stage-coach by 
which I arrived at the city discharged its pas- 
sengers. It was an old fashioned establish- 
ment, which but for the absence of galleries, 
might remind one of the famous Tabard Inn, 
from which Chaucer's pilgrims set out. For its 
capacious yard, in which the passengers alighted, 
and where they remounted for their homeward 
journey, was approached through a narrow cross 
street, and in its ample stables the stage-horses 
took their rest and refreshment. The front en- 
trance to tlie tavern was under an archway on 
Ann street, loyally named for the old queen j 
for which title was not long ago senselessly sub- 
stituted the unsuggestive appellation of North 
street It has long since given place to more 
modern edifices. It was a comfortable place 
of temporary residence, and in illustration of 
former manners I remember one practice which 
I have never seen elsewhere. At the plate 
of each guest, at dinner, was placed a small de- 
canter of brandy, holding I suppose half-a-pint 
of that liquor, and for which no extra charge 
appeared in the bill, which account itself was 



Appendix. 229 

moderate enough compared with the inordinate 
hotel reckonings of the present day. 



IX. 

In small matters, as well as in great, history 
repeats itself. Thus, the anachronic emotion 

of Miss (on page 17) finds its parallel in 

"Facetiae Poggii," written at Florence, in the 
year 1450, of which the following story is 
one : — 

" Cyriac of Ancona, a wordy man and much 
given to talk, was once deploring in our pres- 
ence the fall and ruin of the Roman empire,, 
and seemed to be vehemently grieved at it. 
Then Anthony Lusco, a most learned man, who 
also stood by, said, jeering at the silly grief of 
the fellow, ' He is very like a man of Milan, 
who, hearing on a feast day one of the race 
of minstrels, v/ho are wont to sing the deeds 
of departed heroes to the people, reciting 
the death of Roland, who w^as slain about 
seven hundred years before in battle, fell at 
once a-weeping bitterly, and when he got home 
to his wife, and she saw him sad and sighing, 
and asked what was the matter, " Alas ! alas ! 
wife," he said, " we are as good as dead and 



230 Appendix, 

gone." " Why, man," she answered, " what 
dreadful thing has befallen you ? Take com- 
fort and come to supper." But he, when he 
went on sobbing and sighing, and would take 
no food, and his wife pressed him to tell the 
cause of his woe, at last said, " Don't you know 
the bad news I have heard to-day ? " *' What ? " 
asked the wife. " Roland is dead, who alone 
was the safeguard of Christendom." On which 
his wife tried to soothe the silly grief of her 
husband, and yet, with all her tenderness, could 
scarce get him to sit down to meat.' " ^ 

The effect of the ballad, however, upon the 
worthy man of Milan reminds one of the his- 
torical incident, recording the effect of song, 
celebrated anew in one of the stanzas of Childe 
Harold " : — 

" When Athens' armies fell at Syracuse, 

And fettered thousands felt the yoke of war, 
Redemption rose up in the Attic Muse, 

Her voice their only ransom from afar ; 

See ! as they chant the tragic hymn, the car 
Of the o'ermastered victor stops : the reins 

Fall from his hands — his idle scimetar 
Starts from its belt — he rends his captives' chains. 
And bids them thank the bard for freedom and his 
strains." 

1 Quoted in Dasent's "Jest and Earnest." London, 
1873. 



Appe7idix, 231 

X. 

The ancestor of Colonel Edward Wiggles- 
worth, mentioned in the text, an officer of the 
Revolution, highly esteemed by Washington, 
was Rev. Michael Wigglesworth, author of " The 
Day of Doom," published in the last quarter of 
the seventeenth century, and reprinted in Lon- 
don j a dreadfully dismal, but edifying poem, 
and not without a certain horrifying merit. 



XL 

Were it within the scope of this work, I 
might furnish a catalogue, by no means meagre, 
of inhabitants formerly distinguished in their 
day and generation. For example, I have 
heard it stated as a curious fact, that, not far 
from the beginning of the present century, each 
of the three Professors of Harvard College, 
namely. Professors Webber, afterwards Presi- 
dent ; Pearson, and Toppan, were natives of 
Newbury. 



232 Appendix, 

XII. 

I COULD hardly dismiss this volume from my 
hands without some reference to the means of 
public information furnished by the newspapers 
of the town. Of these, there have been, since 
" The Essex Journal," soon afterwards merged 
in " The Impartial Herald," and first published 
in 1773, between thirty and forty attempts to 
establish newspapers ; but the " Herald," the 
successor of those before-named, for many 
years conducted as a semi-weekly journal, and 
since the year 1832 as a daily paper, has alone 
steadily maintained its ground. It has always 
been distinguished for the editorial ability dis- 
played in its columns, and for a care bestowed 
upon its several departments, which gave it a 
high reputation, scarcely surpassed by that of 
leading journals in our larger cities. 

" The Essex Journal " was begun by Isaiah 
Thomas, who in the course of a year sold his 
interest in it to Ezra Lunt ; and he, after two 
years, obeying another call to public service, 
sold it to John Mycall. The first of these 
began life in the humblest condition, without 
schooling of any kind, it is alleged ; taught 
himself to read and write, and after a time re- 
moved to Worcester, became connected with a 



Appendix, 233 

noted paper there, the " Massachusetts Spy,"' at 
length accumulated a handsome fortune, for the 
times, much of which, after a long life, he be- 
queathed to the Antiquarian Society of Worces- 
ter, and a portion to Harvard College, and other 
literary institutions. He was the founder, also, 
of the American Antiquarian Society. He be- 
came a writer and educator of much repute. 

Upon the breaking out of the Revolutionary 
war, Mr. Ezra Lunt was the first man who vol- 
unteered, in the meeting-house, when the min- 
ister. Rev. Mr. Parsons, exhorted his parishion- 
ers to military service ; was chosen captain of 
the company, with which he was present in 
command at Bunker Hill, and afterwards was 
raised to the rank of major. He took part in 
the battle of Monmouth Court House, when 
the British army, under Sir Henry Clinton, re- 
tired with much difficulty and loss before Wash- 
ington, and used to relate the particulars of the 
well-known rebuke administered by that great 
chief to General Charles Lee for his hasty re- 
treat from the advanced post, which had been 
assigned him. He declared himself to have 
been close by at the moment, and to have 
heard the energetic language used on the occa- 
sion. After the war, he received his allotment 
of land, and settled upon it, at Marietta, Ohio. 



2 34 Appendix. 

Mr. Mycall was a person of much natural 
capacity and shrewdness, with certain eccentric- 
ities of character, and kept up a little politic 
mystery about himself. He once engaged a 
well-known carriage-maker of the day to build 
him a chaise, which it was agreed should be 
finished at a certain time. When the specified 
period arrived, the vehicle was not forthcoming. 
Enduring a similar disappointment several 
times, and expressing himself strongly about it 
to the offender, that individual promised it to 
him positively at a certain date, if he was alive. 
Even then, it w^as not delivered ; but what was 
the astonishment of the faulty party to read in 
his newspaper the next morning, " Died, yester- 
day, P. B., chaise-maker," etc. In a state of 
boiling indignation he rushed to the street, and 
on the way to the office of publication called 
the attention of various acquaintances to the 
wrongful statement, which, it appeared, no one 
had observed. Entering the office, he inquired, 
with much feeling, how Mr. Mycall could have 
published such a paragraph. " Did you not 
promise me," said the editor, " that my chaise 
should be sent home, on such a day, if you 
were alive ? " " Well, supposing I did ? " 
" AVhy, then, of course, you must be dead ! " 
Taking up a copy of the paper from his desk, 



Appendix. 235 

and examining the obituary notices, " But," said 
the editor, " there is no such statement here." 
The bewildered chaise-maker hastened home to 
examine his paper anew ; and it appeared, on 
inquir}?, that tlie account of his decease was 
printed only in his own copy ; a gloomy jest, 
which was soon much relished by the commu- 
nity. 

Indeed, the town became for a time a noted 
place for the publication of standard works, and 
books of various descriptions. It was here 
that the well-known Mr. Edmund M. Blunt, 
who subsequently removed to the city of New 
York, published his valuable and famous 
"American Coast Pilot," and, afterwards, the 
no less useful '' Practical Navigator." 



XIII. 

In attestation of the remark, on page 144 of 
the text, that an antiquated pronunciation of 
many English words prevailed long in New 
England, after it was disused in Old England, 
and was brought by the colonists from the 
Mother Country, see the criticism of " Holo- 
fernes " upon innovations in pronunciation, in 
Act v., Sc. I, of " Love's Labor Lost," show- 
ing the state of the case in Shakespeare's time. 



236 Appendix, 



XIV. 

In dosing this Appendix, which might be 
extended to almost any length, as recollections 
which did not occur to me in writing the body 
of the work come up, I cannot omit a remark- 
able use of the American language, let us say, 
since the Czar once so denominated the English 
tongue. It was upon the part of a town con- 
stable, perhaps as nearly of the Dogberry type 
as could be imagined. I was standing in the 
town hall, at a moment preliminary to a public 
meeting. A knot of youngsters had been jok- 
ing one another, when this authoritative official 
approached. All but one speedily retired be- 
fore the awful presence. " Master Constable " 
addressed the lingerer : " Disperge^' — a diffi- 
cult operation for an individual, — " disperge, I 
say ; we can t have no burlash here ! " 

Even Shakespeare might have been glad of 
such an opportunity to enlarge the cacology, by 
actual hearing, of some of his most amusing 
-characters. 



INDEX. 

— *— 

Page 
Academy, of good standing .... 137 

Adams, J. Q. ... .... 134 

Addison on English Superstition . . . 176 

Adventure of American Sea-captain with Christophe, 

Emperor of Hayti 6 1 

" Algerines ; " their Quarrel with Foreign Sailors 74 

Ancient Elder 120 

Ancient Episcopal Church ; its former Rector, Bishop 

of Massachusetts 114, 130 

Apparition, an 184 

Aristocracy 21 

Aunt Judith 23 

Aunt Judith's Narrative of Witchcraft . . . 169 

Balaklava Charge ...... 28 

Bar, dangerous 6 

Bartlett, William 33 

Beggars, mimic 106 

Beverages, formerly 96 

Bishop Bass 130 

Bold Youngster 165 

Books, some that we read .... 138, 139 

Borderers 74 

Boyish Sports 14 

Bradbur}', Judge 34 

British Orders in Council 108 

Bromfield Legacy 18 

Buchan, Earl of 6^ 



238 Index, 



Campbell, " Tom " 27 

Cannon for street posts 58 

Capen, Parson 178 

Characteristic Letter 40 

Christmas Evening 161 

Christmas Hymn 163 

Christophe of Hayti 61 

Clergy of the town 122 

Clergyman, Scottish 166 

Collector Marquand 37 

Collector Wigglesworth 36 

Comparative value of money 21 

Congregation, " Scrupulous " . . . . 122 

Consequences of war and embargo . • • 57 

Court of Common Pleas ..... Z^y 

Cunning expedient 22 

Dalton, Tristram 34 

Damage of war 38 

Dana, Rev. Dr. 128 

Dangerous bar 6 

Devil's den ........ 15 

Dexter, " Lord " 63 

Dexter's poet 66 

Dinah for Diana 145 

Discourse of Rev. Mr. Murray .... 99 

Dissatisfied washerwoman 104 

Dogberry and Verges 198 

Domestic, Scottish 104 

Earl of Buchan 63 

Earthquakes in former times 1 13 

Edinburgh, similar habits in ... . 10 

Elder, an old-fashioned 120 



Index, 239 



Emperor of Hayti 61 

English Clergymen 124 

English Reader. Are modern text-books as useful ? 137 

English superstition 176 

Enterprise, Maritime and Commercial ... 5 

Extraordinary images 63 

Failure, swindling 103 

Favor, Johnny : his opinion of polemics . . 133 
Few insane persons, and the treatment of them 

formerly 45 

Fights of boys 10 

Fine trees 17 

Fire, strange 190 

Fire, the " great " 103 

Foot-warming process 1 18 

Former Rector of St. Paul's a Bishop . . . 130 

Former severe winters i 

Former solemn proceedings in naturalization . . no 

Fourth of July 98 

Fright of an old woman 100 

Fugitive Sea-captain and a lively chase . . 58 

Ghost, reputed 180 

Gould, Miss Hannah F. . . . • . 31 

Gourmand, a 98 

Great Fire 103 

Greys, Silver 56 

Grouse, Old, story of 146 

Growth of Episcopal Church 130 

Habits in Edinburgh lO 

Habits, jovial, of old times 96 

Hardships of early times 40 



240 Index, 

Hay-time treating 109 

" Hinx-minx," origin of 174 

Hohenlinden 28 

Holt, Granny . , . . . . . 169 

Home, return to ..... . . 202 

How they used to ** break " .... 103 

Huntington, Countess of, and her Seminaiy . .124 

Hymn, Christmas 163 

Images, extraordinary 63 

Indifference to cold 119 

Inquisitive spinster ....... 123 

Insane persons, few 45 

Internal trade 67 

Introductory chapters to Scott's novels . . 159 

Jackson family 24 

James, King of Scotland 106 

Johnson, Samuel, Dr 26 

"Joppajine" 144 

Jovial habits of old times 109 

Judith, Aunt 23 

July 4th 98 

King James of Scotland 106 

King Louis Philippe 4 

King, Rufus 135 

Lee, Mrs. George 31 

Longfellow 32 

Lowells, The 24 

Magistrate and culprit 51 

Mansions, remarkable . . . . . .18 



Index, 



241 



Manufacturing establishments 

Maritime enterprise 

Market Square, triangular 

Marquand, Collector . 

Massachusetts, Diocese of 

Meeting-houses — stoves and organs 

Merchant, rich .... 

Milton, Rev. Mr. 

Mimic beggars .... 

Money, comparative value of 

" Moses is come ! " 

Murray, Rev. Mr. 

Murray's Reader .... 



4 

5 

66 

37 

130 
118 

34 
124 
106 

21 
100 

99 
137 



Naturalization, etc. . 
New England pronunciation 
New England superstition, of old 
Novelist, English, his surprise 
Nutting, etc 



no 

144 

160 

9 

14 



Old-fashioned hospitality in beverages 

" Old Grouse," story of . 

Old Peddlers . . . . 

Old Woman, fright of . . . 

Orders in Council, British . 

Organ of St. Paul's 

Origin of " Hinx-Minx " . . . 

Our Town 



109 
146 
67 
100 
108 
118 
174 
5 



Paine, Robert Treat . 
Parson, Capen 

Parsonage and its curious picture 
Parsons, Chief Justice . 
Particular Shoemaker 
16 



134 

178 
52 

134 
48 



242 Index. 

Peabody, George . . . . . , '33 

Peace of 1783 99 

Peddlers, old 67 

People of St. James's 131 

Perkins, Jacob 25 

Personal part of leading citizens in politics . 94 

Persons, distinguished 34 

Picture, curious 52 

Pike, Nicholas 25 

Polemics 132 

Political hostilities 55 

Poultry in profusion 67 

Practice, modern, of naturalization . . .110 

Professional persons, etc 83 

" Project," what it is 174 

Putnam, Oliver 33 

Quaker meeting 136 

Queer contrast of language 61 

Railways and their influence 142 

Ramsay, Dean, and others. Reminiscences of . 10 

Reader, Murray's English 137 

Reading parties 142 

Refinement of certain classes 133 

Reputed apparition 192 

Respect for the clergy 29 

" Retort courteous " 27 

Rev. Dr. Dana 128 

Rev. Mr. Milton 124 

Rev. Dr. Morse 131 

Rev. Mr. Murray 122 

Rev. Dr. Spring 29 

Richard, Uncle 162 



Index, 



Sabbath, how kept ... 

Sailing adventure 

" Salt," ancient . . . , 

Saturday and Sunday evenings . 

Sceneiy on the river 

School books, etc. 

Schoolmaster, a shrewd 

Scott's Autobiography 

Scott's reply to certain critics 

Scottish domestic, cool and faithful 

*' Scrupulous " congregation . 

Scrupulous shoemaker 

Severe winters . . . . 

Shipbuilding, etc. 

Silver Greys 

Singular companion 

Singular night adventure 

Snow-storm in old times 

Social security . . . . 

Stage-house .... 

St. James's 

Story of an apparition 

Story of bold youngster . 

Stove in Church .... 

Street fights of boys 

Striking adventure of Rufus King 

Surprise of Thackeray 

Swett and Schwedt 

Swindling failure . . . . 

Sympathetic young lady 



120 
7 
3 

30 
5 

140 
10 

159 
104 
122 
48 
I 
5 

56 
168 

87 
2 

85 
53 
143 
179 
165 
118 

10 
135 

9 
30 
103 

17 



Tennyson's "Charge at Balaklava' 
Text instead of sermon . 
" Thanks be to Praise ! " . 



28 
119 
202 



244 Index, 

Thanksgiving 105 

Timber and shipbuilding 5 

" Tom " Campbell 27 

Topsfield spectre 177 

To^Yn-meeting and resolute chairman . . .96 

Trade, internal, of the town .... 67 

Traders, small 67 

Treating in hay-time 109 

Trees of great beauty 17 

Triangular Market Square 66 

Tyng Family 24 

Uncle Richard . ^ 162 

United States after a runaway .... 58 

Unterrified clergyman 166 

Verges and Dogberry 198 

Vulgarian of the nouveaiix riches ... 62 

Wages, low rate of 23 

Walsh, Michael 25 

What a " project " is or was 174 

Wheelwright, William 32 

Whipping-post 123 

Wigglesworth, Colonel 36 

Winters, severe formerly i 

Witchcraft, and Uncle Richard's opinion of it . 167 
Wood's account of the aristocracy . . . .21 

Yankee acuteness 141 

Young persons sent to the town for education . 134 



'"j 92 8 



